Lies I'd Like to Forget
by I hart Booth
Summary: Booth has a past and it's coming back to haunt him. He needs Brennan but is he strong enough to let her in before it's too late? BB and lots of Parker
1. A Phone Call He'd Rather Forget

**_And here is my next fic and this chapter is dedicated to Bellabun who has been waiting patiently for me to post it. _**

-----Immidiatly after 'Judas on a Pole'------

Brennen looked around at her team, her family, and smiled as Hodgins gave Zack another good-natured punch in the arm. They were all crammed into a small booth at the diner, Hodgins and Angela closest to the window across from each other, Cam and Zack next to them and Booth and Brennen on the end, both practically falling out.

Angela raised her beer in the air and the rest of the team followed her lead.

"I propose a toast. To Dr. Zackery Addy, our favorite quirky, brilliant, slightly socially awkward but very professional, scientist. Zack, I knew you could do it." She leaned over and gave him another kiss on the cheek as the team clinked their bottles.

Booth looked over and saw Brennen smiling easily. He was glad for the happiness in her eyes, the sadness that that had possessed them a few seconds ago outside was gone without a trace.

Brennen looked at Booth again from across the table and caught his stare. She mouthed 'what' to him and he raised his eyebrows. 'Nothing', Booth mouthed back. She glared playfully at him and he gave her a small charm smile.

Angela, who'd seen the entire exchange, kicked Hodgins under the table.

"Ow." He looked at her and she gestured toward Booth and Brennen at the end of the table. But by the time he looked Booth and Brennen had slipped back into their cool 'were just partners' exterior.

"Well thanks you guys." Zack's grin had yet to diminish even slightly, "I hate to go, but I have to go clean up my house."

"Why?" Hodgins reached for another fry from the plate they all were sharing.

"My family decided they wanted to come celebrate with me this weekend, they'll be here within the hour." Zack glanced sideways at Hodgins, whose fry had stopped halfway to his mouth.

"They what?" Hodgins almost screamed. Zack scrambled to get past Dr. Brennen who barely managed to get out of the way as both he and Hodgins ran out of the booth, Hodgins chased Zack outside while screaming something about, "Forty people? Are you nuts?"

"You know what? Cam, Booth, could I get out? I may have a solution to this." Angela grabbed her purse.

Brennen raised her eyebrows as Angela scooted out of the booth. "What? His stuffs at my house anyway." She grinned and practically skipped out the door.

Booth and Cam settled back into their seats, smiling.

"I've got a good feeling about those two." Cam sipped her coke.

"Really? Hodgins and Angela? Why didn't I know about this?" Booth furrowed his brows at Brennen and then at Cam.

"I guess you're not as observant as you think Booth." Brennen smiled and Booth shook his head.

"Yea right Bones." He raised his eyebrows. "I'm observant enough to know that you should go home and get some rest. You need a ride?" His searched her face. He knew the happiness in her now was genuine, but he also knew it wouldn't last.

She was still reeling from having to watch her family drive away, again. He wanted her to go home and get some sleep.

Cam watched Booth's face and could've slapped him for the tenderness she saw in it as he gazed at Brennen.

Instead, she reached over and placed her hand on his inner thigh.

"Seeley I…"

Booth jumped up from the booth in reaction to Cam's touch, and then glanced at her apologetically.

Brennen shut her mouth, as she was about to protest getting a ride home, and stared up at him in confusion.

"Uh, sorry Bones. I just remembered that I have Parker this weekend so...I have to go." He turned to Cam, then to Brennen, fidgeting slightly as if trying to make a decision. "Yea. I have to go."

He turned and left quickly, leaving the two women staring at each other.

"What was that all about?" Brennen seemed slightly amused as she reached for another fry. "He acted like he was running from us."

Cam sighed. And looked at Brennen. She really was as oblivious as she seemed. Cam wished she could be like that.

-------------------------------------------------

Booth pulled up in front of Rebecca's house and hopped out as the little boy rushed him.

"Hi daddy!" He hugged his father's legs and Booth lifted him into a hug.

"Hey buddy."

Rebecca walked down the sidewalk toward them and held out Parker's bag. "All his stuff is in there."

Booth put Parker down and took it. "Thanks."

"And, Drew and I are going out of town for the weekend, so I won't be around. Here's the number of our hotel." She handed Booth a piece of paper.

"C'mon Daddy!" Parker started toward the car.

"Parker. Come back and say 'goodbye' to your mother." Booth called after his son, who turned on his heel and rushed back at his mom.

"Bye Parker." She knelt down, kissed him on the forehead, and then rubbed the lipstick off his face. "I'll tell Drew you said goodbye, okay?"

Parker nodded and took his father's hand. "Are you gonna get me pie? I like pie. And ice-cream too."

"I don't know buddy. We'll see." Booth lifted Parker into his SUV and strapped him in.

"Don't spoil you're dinner!" Rebecca called out as Booth's door slammed shut. Parker just grinned and waved.

Rebecca watched them drive off.

It was one of those days. One of the days when she wondered if they all wouldn't have been better off is she'd said 'yes'.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Booth laid Parker on his bed.

"Mommy makes me take a bath before bed." Parker said groggily as Booth pulled his clothes off and changed him into pajamas.

"Well what mommy doesn't know won't hurt her okay?"

Parker sort of nodded as his head fell on the pillow, asleep before it even touched the fabric.

Booth smiled, turned out the light and stood in the doorway, watching his son breathe.

"Love you Parker." He moved to shut the door when he heard Parker whisper.

"Love you more Daddy."

Booth just shook his head, and wandered back out into the living room smiling. He didn't mind having to clean up the remains of their chicken dinner or putting away the playstation console or attempting to find the missing Shoots'n'Ladders game pieces.

After all, his son loved him.

As he began to pick up the rooms, his thoughts kept wandering back to Bones and their conversation outside the diner. Had he really been ready to kiss her if Zach hadn't tapped the window? Probably not.

_Definitely not._ He shook his head to himself.

_What then?_

She'd just seemed so innocent and heartbroken. Her eyes that deep shade of blue-gray and when he lifted her chin to look at him. He just wanted to do anything that would make her feel better.

_Would kissing her really have made her feel better? Would it have made me feel better?_

Booth was almost done with the dishes when his cell phone rang loudly in his coat. He ran over to the couch to get it before Parker woke up.

"Booth."

"Major Seeley Patrick Booth of the United States Army Rangers?"

Booth stiffened. "Yes."

"Do not attempt to trace this call. Report to 3453 West Heere St. at 0500 hours tomorrow." Then dial tone.

Booth carefully closed his phone and sat on the edge of the couch. That was a summons if he'd ever heard one.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at his phone.

They said when he retired from the Army that his skills as a Sharpshooter might be called upon again one day.

He'd always hoped they wouldn't be, he didn't want to be responsible for taking lives on that level again. But now it seemed those words were about to come back and haunt him.

What was he about to be pulled into?

**_Yeah, what is he about to be pulled into? Hmmmm...wanna know? Poke that button!_**


	2. Major Booth, Meet the General

**_I never have been too thrilled with that first chapter so I'm continuing with this one much quicker than I usually post. As usual, thanks to all my reviwers, you rock my world!_**

Booth yawned again and tightened his grip on the steering wheel as navigated the deserted DC streets.

He hadn't gotten almost any sleep last night.

First thinking about the summons kept him up until midnight. Then Parker had a nightmare and was up for an hour as he tried to rock him back to sleep. After that he'd spent hours tossing and turning in his bed as images of Bones that he should not be thinking kept playing in his mind. Finally he'd drifted off to sleep around three thirty, only to wake up an hour later so he could drop Parker off at one of his neighbor's homes and head out the door to find out what the call had been about last night.

He pulled up in front of the address and tried to steady his heart rate, he hated the fact that he was this nervous. Why was he acting like everything was about to change? Nothing had even happened yet.

Booth got out of his SUV and unconsciously felt for his piece there on his hip. Having it sort of brought comfort to him. He was in one of the worst corners of DC and the address just _happened_ to belong to an abandoned looking warehouse that was surrounded by a high barbed wire fence.

Cautiously moving through the open gate, Booth allowed his sniper trained eyes to take in every movement within a three-block radius while moving swiftly through the yard to the warehouse. He finally found an opening and was barely able to squeeze his broad chest and shoulders through a crack in the doors. Inside the warehouse it was pitch black dark, the sun that had barely begun to peek over the horizon gave him no help in the light department.

Booth walked in a few feet and then stood still as his eyes to adjusted to the darkness. His ears tuned in to everything around him, he would have been able to hear a whisper in Times Square at that moment, but there was nothing for him to hear.

Then the space was suddenly lit with large overhead lamps and Booth squinted and his pupils dilated.

That was when he realized he wasn't alone. Two men stood twenty paces in front of him in full military uniform. He recognized the rank insignia and automatically saluted a General and a Colonel, both sporting the old fashioned black berets.

"Major Booth, you're on time. That's good." The General spoke first.

"Well you're message sounded official enough that I decided not to take any chances." He waited for a reaction.

"You will address me as 'Sir', Major Booth." There it was.

"All due respect General, it's the crack of dawn, I don't know what I am doing here and I am _not_ in the Army anymore."

The General tilted his head to the side slightly, surprised by Booth's candor. "Fair enough."

He clasped his hands behind his back and began to walk in a slow circle around Booth, who remained standing looking straight ahead at the other man, a Colonel.

"You were a Sharpshooter in the Army, were you not?"

"Yessir." Booth decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and added the 'sir' for his benefit. "One of three in our infantry."

"Any good?"

"The best, sir."

The man stopped moving and looked Booth from head to toe. Sizing him up. He was still in shape, relatively young, and seemed to have moved passed the horrors of war so many soldiers were haunted by. He could be the one.

"Do you still have it?"

This time Booth looked the General in the eye, debating on how to answer. Did he lie, say he wasn't as good a shot as he had been and most likely get out of whatever was about to go down? Or did he tell the truth and admit he could put a bullet between a man's eyes from 70yds away only using his FBI standard-issue 38 Special.

"Yessir I do."

The General searched his eyes for a moment, gave a quick nod and returned to his spot beside the Colonel.

"Major Booth, we have an assignment for you. We need a good sniper with enough years as a civilian that he will not easily fall under suspicion. You seem to be the man for the job." The General noticed with pleasure that Booth did not seem intimidated, only cautious and confident. That was good.

Booth stared at the men, he hoped they planned to tell him more than that before he got knee deep involved in this. Whatever 'this' might be.

"It wouldn't be permanent, but I can't tell you how long it would last. This is concerning highly delicate information that I cannot brief you on until you agree to help. It's a matter of national security."

Booth took a deep breath and looked at both men. Their faces stoic and unreadable. This had to be official, top secret yes, but official.

The General was the first indicator. The way the man had looked Booth up and down made him feel like a Maggot on his first day of Basic Training. When the General nodded in approval, it had made him want to puff up with pride.

"Matter of national security?" Booth queried, still weighing his options.

"Yes."

"And no one else can do it?"

"Not as good as you can Major."

Booth contemplated the cement floor.

"We need an answer now Major Booth."

Booth looked up.

"I'll do it."

He hoped he wouldn't live to regret those words.

---------------------------------------------------

Temperance Brennan sat at her desk staring at her computer screen. The reason she'd come back to her office had completely slipped her mind. That annoyed her to no end.

Angela's high pitched "flirty" voice sounded out in the lab and she looked out to see she and Booth talking near the platform stairs.

She noticed that Booth's posture was more slumped than usual, and his eyes kept drifting toward her door.

Finally his conversation with Angela ended and Booth continued on his way to Brennan's office.

"Hey Bones." Booth didn't bother knocking since he knew she'd already seen him and simply made his way to her couch.

"Hi Booth." She looked back at her screen and racked her brain. It was something important…

Brennan didn't notice that the Agent had found the first sense of relaxation he'd felt in almost twenty-four hours and was starting to doze on her couch.

"Aha!" She shouted, and began typing furiously to find the article she'd promised Zack and was startled when the equally startled Booth suddenly lept to his feet and was reaching for his weapon.

"Booth?" She questioned, wondering why he seemed so on edge.

Booth quickly realized his mistake and tried to make himself relax, at least visibly.

"Um…sorry." He looked away and sat back on the couch, first leaning on his knees and then putting his face in his hands.

His mind began going over, for the forty-third time in the last hour, what had happened at the warehouse.

After agreeing to help, the Colonel spoke up for the first time and handed him a folder with a picture, a plane ticket and a business card in it. On the business card was a phone number and the words 'Bogie' and 'Darby'.

"That is a picture of you're first target. That is a plane ticket to where you will find him." The Colonel had a much stricter military air about him, no use for pleasantries obviously. "You will go. You will wait. You will not return until the job is done. No one will know where you are. You're superior at the FBI will be informed that you are working leads on another case and are unable to give him updates personally because of situations beyond you're control."

"I have cases I'm working on."

"And you will continue to work them. In person when you are here, and it will be taken care of when you are not. You're first priority, Major Booth, is to get the job done. Quickly and quietly."

Booth nodded stiffly. He didn't like the idea of dropping everything to go kill someone, but he knew somewhere deep inside that he would. He had to.

"And the business card?"

"That is for you Major Booth." The General spoke up again. "You call that number and use the first word when the target has been taken out. You use the other when something has gone wrong."

Booth nodded.

"Major Booth..."

Booth looked up from the folder and ignoring the eminent headache already twinging in the back of his mind.

"I mean very very wrong."

"I understand Sir."

"Booth? Boooooth?"

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to find Brennan standing in front of him.

"So do we have a case or are you just here to sleep on my couch?" She had her hands on her hips staring down at him with annoyance and a twinge of worry.

Booth stood quickly, pushing the face in the picture out of his mind.

The face of the man he was going to be hunting in a few hours.

Immidiatly Booth changed the word._ No. Not a man._ He couldn't think about him that way. That face couldn't belong to a man, Booth needed to make him into nothing if he was going to do this. That face needed to be just that. A face. A paper target. Anything else and he knew he wouldn't be able to go through with it.

"Are you okay?" Brennen reached out to touch his arm and Booth jumped, he'd forgotten she was standing there.

"Yea, Bones, I'm alright." He nodded and then remembered why he'd come. "Listen I've got a problem."

Brennen folded her arms and waited, allowing him to continue uninterrupted. He loved that about her.

"Something came up and I, uh, have to go out of town for a while. A few days. I have Parker this weekend. I'd take him home but Rebecca and Drew left for the weekend and I need to get him somewhere to stay."

Brennen's eyes widened. "Booth I can't…"

"Yes you can Bones, he loves you." She looked at him with a pained expression. "Please Temperance. I really need you're help."

She sighed, looking at him hard. She noticed he didn't use his charm smile to get her to say 'yes', so he was obviously taking this very seriously. He really had no where else to turn.

"Okay." She nodded and he smiled for the first time.

"Thank you Bones." He turned to leave when Brennen called after him.

"Where do you have to go?"

He stopped, unsure of what to say. "I…have a case. Undercover work involved, I'll probably be gone all weekend, maybe longer. I can tell Rebecca to pick him up at you're place Sunday night."

She gave him a tight lipt smile and watched him hurry out. There was something up with him, she hoped he would tell her what it was eventually.

_**Okay...this one is a little better, getting into the suspense at least. What will Parker and Bones do? How will Booth react to his new assignment? If Booth tells Brennan whats gong on...when will he do it? Wanna know? Spank that button! lol.**_


	3. Sweet Dreams

**_Thank you for everyone who is reading and reviewing. All feedback is appreciated._**

Booth picked up his duffel off the rotating shelf at baggage claim and made his way through the busy airport. His ears were ringing. He hadn't slept at all on the four-hour flight to Chiloquin, making this his thirty-ninth hour awake running on about three hours of sleep.

He noticed an envelope sticking out of one of the outside pockets on his duffel and reached for it. Inside was an address written in neat handwriting and a motel key along with a car key and remote were folded tightly in the crumpled paper.

All of this only slightly surprised him. He knew as long as he did his job, everyone else, whoever that might be, would do theirs and hopefully this mission would be over in a matter of days.

Outside the active airport he hit a button on the remote and a black Sedan beeped and flashed it's lights out in the parking lot. He found it, threw his stuff in the trunk and drove away. It was becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate on the traffic though, his thoughts kept drifting to Bones and Parker.

Why this weekend of all weekends? He hardly ever got to see his son, he hated that he had to choose killing someone over being with him.

Booth shook Parker's face out of his mind. Thinking of his son and his wide-eyed innocent view of the world was not going to make what he had to do any easier.

The address in the paper belonged to a run down looking motel that reminded him of the night of his Junior Prom. After pulling his duffel out of the trunk, he jogged up to his room, the number that was indicated on the motel key.

Nearly choking on the smell of bleach and cigarettes inside the tiny room, Booth rubbed his face tiredly. Throwing his duffel on the bed, he sighed and closed his eyes. he was starting to get a headache and rolling his head from one shoulder to the other, trying to loosen the knots that were forming in them, wasn't helping much.

When he opened his eyes again, he noticed the nondescript wood box in the middle of the floor.

He walked carefully toward it, lifting the lid he pursed his lips at what he saw. He wasn't surprised, actually kind of pleased. He didn't know what sort of weapon he would be using for the assignment, and using the wrong gun would make things harder on him.

This was not the wrong gun. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Booth smiled tightly in a sort of militant appreciation as he lifted the heavy rifle from the box. Finding this M107 LRSR in his room was really the only good thing that had happened to him so far. It meant this mission would be quick and soon he could get back to his life.

He set the butt of the rifle on the ground and leaned it against the bed. Then he reached for the 5-round magazine that was still in the box and set it next to him as he settled heavily on the mattress.

Pulling the picture the Colonel had given him out of his back pocket, he studied it for clues as to where he would find the target. He knew all the information he needed was probably in this photo since it was all the information he had been given.

He squinted at the photo in the dim yellow light coming from an outdated lamp in the corner of the room. The photo seemed to have been taken in some sort of wooded area, and he could see the target was standing next to a sign .

'Crate' was all he could make out of the first word and 'Nationa' was all he could get of the second.

Booth thought for a moment and he realized the picture had to have been taken at Crater Lake National Park not fifteen miles northwest of where he was staying.

He yawned widely, reminding him of how tired he was and he laid back on the bed, allowing the picture flutter to the floor. Booth was exhausted and knew he needed sleep, but couldn't seem to find it. He tried to relax his mind by taking in every inch of the room.

The ceiling was speckled with water spots varying in size from about a dinner plate to a car and a there was a ;arge crack ran along the south wall. He could see the yellowish wallpaper peeling near the ceiling in several places and completely gone in others. He didn't even want to see the condition of the bathroom and made a mental note to sleep on top of the covers that night.

_If I sleep at all, that is._

Finally, growing increasingly bored and depressed with taking in his surroundings he grabbed the remote off the TV and flipped it on. He was greeted with static on most stations and some sort of whale documentary on the one channel that came in semi-clear.

Sighing heavily, Both put the remote aside and laid back down on the bed, closing his eyes and trying to fall asleep. He'd already decided to begin his search for the man in the picture the next day and he didn't know when his next opportunity for sleep would be.

In spite of his exhaustion, Booth still couldn't find a way to relax. His mind was restless and his body ached.

He tried counting sheep. He tried relaxing each muscle in his body one-by-one and not moving. He even tried to solve math problems in his head, hoping to bore himself to sleep.

But nothing worked and the constant whirling thoughts and conflicting emotions coupled with impending insomnia threatened to send him over the edge.

After almost two hours the little nagging in his mind defeated him and he pulled out his phone, dialing Bones. He knew it was probably not a good idea, against protocol and all that, but he wanted to talk to her and to Parker and knew it was his last chance at finally relaxing enough to find some much needed slumber before the long mission that lay ahead of him.

-----------------------------------------------

Brennan pulled up in front of Parker's school a few minutes after the bell had rung. The mass of movement astounded and overwhelmed her as she searched for Parker's face amongst the sea of screaming and running children. She felt out of place walking among the students as they rushed toward buses and waiting parents, she was at least two feet taller than the majority of them.

_They're like Pygmies._ She thought to herself, a small smile of amusement playing on her lips.

Finally she saw him. The short mop of curls was standing near the curb, gripping the straps of his backpack and looking out over the crowd, searching as well.

"Parker!" She called to him. He heard his name and looked toward the sound, his face immediately brightening when he saw her.

"Dr. Brennan." He grinned and hugged her legs. Brennan smiled and leaned over, giving him an awkward, almost upside down hug.

"Are you here with my Daddy?" Parker let go of her legs and looked past her, hoping to catch a glimpse of his father. The grounds had grown quieter as the buses pulled away and the sounds of singing birds and barking dogs could almost be heard.

"Um, no Parker. You're Daddy had to leave town unexpectedly. He asked me to take care of you for a few days."

Parker drew his eyebrows together in confusion which quickly transformed to hurt.

"He's not here?" He asked in a small voice.

Brennan realized he was upset and knelt in front of him, bringing herself to eyelevel. "Parker, I know how much your Dad loves spending time with you so whatever he had to go do must be very important, you understand?"

Parker nodded, though his mood didn't brighten.

"Would you like to come home with me?"

Parker's face broke into a smile and then quickly turned serious again.

"Do you know the password?" He questioned.

Brennan straightened to her full height and looked down at him.

"Password?"

He nodded emphatically, shaking his blonde curls all over the place.

"Yeah. Daddy and Mommy say never to go with anybody that doesn't know the password. And not to talk to strangers. But I know you so I can talk to you, but you have to know the password."

Brennan frowned and felt her heart rate quicken. Booth hadn't given her a password, how was she going to get Parker to come with her?

"Do you know it Dr. Bones?"

Then it hit her. That had to be it.

"Parker, is the password 'Bones'?"

The immediate wide grin that took over Parker's chubby face told her that was a 'yes'. He reached out, took Brennen's hand, and allowed her to lead him to her car as he regaled her with the tale of his day.

Hours later Brennan and Parker had finished their Pizza Hut dinner, Parker's favorite. They'd done the dishes and given Parker a bath and were passing the time until bedtime with a spirited game of 'Go Fish'.

"Parker you have to have a four of clubs, it's the only logical thing left." Brennen persisted, but Parker continued to shake his head from side to side.

"Nope. Sorry Dr. Brennan. It's time to go fishing."

Brennan was about to pick a card from the pile in he middle of the table when her phone rang.

"Brennan." She said automatically without checking the caller ID.

"Hey, how's everything going?" Booth's voice was hoarse with fatigue, but Brennan immediately recognized it.

"Fine Booth. We're playing a card game that has something to do with fishing, although there seems to be no correlation between the card game and the actual outdoor activity of sport fishing." Her confusion was genuine, but she smiled at remembering Parker's face when she told him she didn't have any fish or fishing gear for him to use for the game.

Booth chuckled softly on his end and felt the weight he'd been carrying around for the past few hours start to lift a little.

"It's okay Bones. Thanks for humoring him."

Brennan shrugged, difficult to do while holding a phone between her shoulder and her ear. "It's fine. He's a good kid."

Parker smiled up at her, knowing she was talking about him.

"Booth?" Brennen sat her cards down and left for the kitchen to hopefully get out of Parker's earshot. "Is everything okay? You sounded a little strange earlier." She hoped she could get him to give her more information about what was going on with him.

"Yea. Everything is fine Bones." Booth said rather unenthusiastically.

"No it's not Booth. I can hear it in you're voice." She glanced out at Parker, who was carefully arranging the 'fishing' pile into something a bit more orderly on the table.

There was a heavy sigh in Brennan's ear.

"Bones it's just a short mission, I'll be back soon and everything will be fine."

_Just keep telling yourself that Seeley. You might even believe it after a while._

"Mission?" Brennen's ears perked up. "What do you mean 'mission'?"

Booth cursed himself. He'd screwed up and now Brennen was going to be more determined than ever to find out what was going on.

"Case! I meant case." He said frantically trying to think of a way to rectify the situation. "Can I speak to Parker please?"

Brennan was about to protest, but she knew how much he must be missing being with Parker so she called him over.

"Daddy!"

"Hey Bub. How was school?" Booth tried to sound upbeat for his son, though he didn't know how convincing he was being. Parker didn't notice.

"Today we learned how to write the whole alphabet and we could pick whatever colors we wanted to write it with and then…" Parker's words began to run together in Brennan's mind as she thought about Booth.

He seemed particularly on edge the day before, he sounded exhausted on the phone and he'd said 'mission' not 'case'. As much as she hated conjecture, Brennen couldn't help but think whatever was going on with Booth was something that crossed the wires in his life. Usually he kept the personal away from the professional, but something had his two worlds melting together and he was being personal about something professional.

She could just **tell**. Now why wouldn't he?

"But Daddy, I want to see you." Brennan returned to her side of the Booth conversation.

"Yes, she's very nice…no…okay Daddy, I'll be good….you promise?…okay, love you too."

He handed the phone to Brennan and walked back to the living room, where he ignored the cards and settled down on the couch.

"Bones, thanks for taking such good care of him, I'll owe you forever." Booth's conversation with Parker obviously lightened his mood, although he hated to dissapoint the child.

"It's okay Booth, no problem." Then, noting the pain in his voice she added, "Parker's a smart boy, he understands why you're not here. He'll be okay, Booth."

Booth nodded though she couldn't see him. "See ya later Bones."

Dial tone.

Brennan shut her phone and came to sit next to Parker. She saw his face was red from holding back tears.

"Miss your dad Parker?" She asked gently, rubbing circles on his back as she waited for a response.

"Yes." He looked up at her and nodded, then quickly he crawled over to her and settled in her lap. "When will he be back?"

Brennan suppressed the shocked look that wanted to break out all over her face from having Parker in her lap, and thought for a moment about what to say. "Soon Parker. He'll be back soon."

Parker unexpectedly grabbed her left wrist and inspected the watch on it. "When is soon?"

"What?"

"Both you and Daddy said he would be back soon. Show me. When is soon?" He pointed to her watch and looked at her hopefully.

"Parker, Soon doesn't have a specific time. It's just...'soon'."

Parker furrowed his brows in confusion. "But when? When is 'just soon'?"

Brennan closed her eyes for a moment.

_How do you explain to a small child that certain words are simply place holders, that he can't mark on a calender when his dad will be back. Patience is a difficult concept for a five year old, I imagine._

"Dr. Brennan? When is 'soon'?" Parker asked again urgently, determination blazing in those sleepy brown eyes.

"Soon is after 'now; and before 'later'." Brennan said finally, lifting the boy off her lap and taking him to bed.

"Ohhh." Parker nodded slowly, resting his head on her shoulders as sleep took him.

"Okay, Daddy promised he would be home soon. I'll wait." He muttered sleepily.

Brennan laid him on her bed and tucked the blankets in around him closely. "Goodnight Parker." She said, going to the door.

"Have good dreams." She added. _Such a sweet boy deserves a peaceful night of sleep_.

Across the country in a lonely cold motel room, Agent Seeley Booth had fallen into a fitful sleep that was neither peaceful nor restful. As he had feared, the new mission had him plunging back into memories he'd rather he didn't have. Opening up old wounds that had barley begun to scar over.

It was going to be a long night.

**_I hope there's people out there still reading. If so...let me know..._**


	4. No Time to Waste

**_Here you go all...are we supposed to put disclaimers? I never do. I think it's quite obvious I don't own Bones or Booth would have come up "missing" long ago. I'd keep him for myself. te-he._**

Booth blinked again as rain flooded into his eyes and added another ten pounds to his clothing.

"C'mon Jimmy! Keep moving!" He shouted over the roar of thunder and gunfire.

The mission had gone horribly wrong and now he and his best friend were running for their lives right through the line-of-fire.

Bullets flew all around, explosions set off sudden flashes of light that split apart the pitch black darkness of the night.

Suddenly Booth realized Jimmy was not by his side. Against his better judgment he stopped and turned around.

"Jimmy?" He strained his eyes and searched the darkness but still couldn't see anything.

"Ahhrrg!!" Booth screamed and stumbled foreword as a searing pain ripped through his body, emanating from a throbbing in his side. He put his hand on his ribs, not having to wonder what the warm sticky substance oozing through his fingers was.

"Jimmy!" Booth tried to make his voice heard over the sound of the deafening rain. Another deafening boom lit up the night sky and Booth saw the crumpled heap of camouflage clothing and gear not ten feet back. "Jimmy."

Booth rushed foreword in the sudden darkness, slipping more than once in the mud as he searched blindly for Jimmy's body.

When his arms landed on Jimmy's jacket he rolled him over.

"Seel." The young man's voice was barely audible as he gasped for air. "They got me man."

Booth felt his heart drop to the mud. "You'll be alright buddy. C'mon, I'm gonna get you back to camp alright?"

Booth didn't wait for a reply, he quickly shrugged his sniper rifle, the very weapon that had caused this whole mess he and Jimmy were now knee deep in, off his back and discarded it on the ground. Then he hoisted Jimmy up onto his shoulder, grunting at the pain the effort caused to his bullet wound.

He'd run more than halfway back to camp before another explosion hit. It landed no more than twenty feet away and sent Booth and his precious cargo flying through the air. After a brief bout with unconsciousness Booth lifted his face from the mud and called out again for his friend.

A groan to his left answered him and he reached out and pulled Jimmy closer to him.

"It's okay buddy, just hold on." Booth knew he'd lost too much blood to continue running. He felt Jimmy curled beside him and tried to use his body to protect the young soldier who had become like a brother to him. "It's almost over Jimmy." He lied.

To Booth's surprise after a few minutes that felt like hours, the gunfire suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes, but still saw nothing but blackness.

Then he heard the familiar whistle above him signaling the arrival of an unwelcome package set to land far too close for comfort.

"Seeley!!"

Booth shot straight up in bed and clapped his hands over his ears. Slowly the sound of bullets and explosions faded into the silence and all that was left of Jimmy was a cold shiver running up his spine.

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed Booth leaned over and rubbed his face, trying to slow his rapid and forced breathing.

He looked at his watch. Four am. He'd barely been asleep for an hour.

Booth sighed and moved to stand, but gasped in pain as his ribs protested. Gingerly touching his side he waited for the pain to die. He knew it was just ghost pain left over from the dream and he didn't bother lifting his shirt to check and be sure. He tried not to look at that scar more often than was necessary.

Knowing he wouldn't be capturing sleep again any time soon Booth moved to the bathroom to clean up, but on sight of it, figured he would probably be more sanitary the way he was. Then, having decided to take advantage of the darkness, he grabbed his duffel and his rifle. The gun slipped easily over his wide shoulders and settled into his back as if it belonged there. Then, holding his duffel behind him he jogged out the door and down the stairs, pointing his car in the direction of Crater Lake National Park.

----------------------------------------------

Brennan woke the next morning and nearly flipped off the couch in an attempt to roll over. She pushed her hair out of her face and stood quickly, smoothing her clothes and looking around, trying to remember why she had been sleeping on the couch.

Noise coming from the kitchen reminded her that she wasn't alone in her apartment and she went to find out what Parker was doing.

The boy had his back to her, swinging his legs at one of Brennan's high kitchen barstools and chomping on Cocoa Puffs. He seemed to be enthrawled with the cereal box and trying to solve the puzzle on the back.

"Rather self-sufficient aren't we Parker?" She couldn't help but ruffle Parker's wild hair as she passed him through the kitchen, automatically picking up the milk he'd left uncapped and balancing precariously on the edge of the table.

Parker nodded and through a mouthful of chocolate cereal said, "I almost always wake up 'fore daddy on the weekends so I make m'self breakfast."

Brennan smiled as she started the coffee maker and grabbed some paper towels. "Do you always make such a mess?" She asked, playfully cupping his chin and shaking it slightly before wiping the spilled milk off the table in front of him.

Parker nodded, grinning. "Daddy says I should just forget about the bowl and pour my milk and cereal 'rectly on the table."

Brennan laughed at the thought of poor not-such-a-morning-person Booth being greeted with the sight of milk and cereal all over his kitchen table and floor before his first cup of coffee. Not a good plan for most people, but Brennan had a sneaking suspicion Parker could do just about anything and his father would love him only more.

She grabbed her cup of black coffee and joined Parker at the table.

"So what do you want to do today?" She pulled a handful of cocoa puffs out of the box and munched on them thoughtfully, hoping the small child knew what he wanted to do since she certainly didn't.

_What does one do to entertain a four-year-old?_

"Hey Dr. Brennan watch this." Parker picked up one of the dry cocoa puffs he'd spilled on the table and launched it straight into the air. Then, leaning back he expertly caught it in his open mouth. He looked at her and grinned, making himself into the spitting image of his father.

Brennen stared wide-eyed at him. "How did you do that?"

Parker just shrugged. "Daddy taught me." And he proceeded to repeat the action, again the cereal landing directly in his mouth. "You try."

Brennnan frowned. "No, that's alright Parker." _I'm not a child, I can't be seen throwing food around like I was one. _

"Please Dr. Brennan?" Parker clasped his hands in front of him and stuck out his bottom lip. An expression just about any person, even an empirical scientist, found impossible to resist.

Brennan hesitated, and pursed her lips. _Why not? Who will see besides Parker?_ She looked again at Parker and his big brown pleading eyes._ Ugh, bad move. No way I can be rational when he's looking at me like that._

She sighed._ It's not like anyone will ever know._ "Fine."

She took one of her pieces of cereal and threw it into the air.

However, on it's way back down the cereal peice drifted to the right. Brennan leaned far over to catch it, and ended up losing her balance and crashing to the floor.

And to make matters worse, she didn't even catch the cocoa puff.

Parker sat giggling uncontrollably in his chair. "You're not…supposed to fall...off the chair Dr..." His sentence broke apart in another fit of laughter, and he wrapped his arms around his stomach.

Brennan furrowed her brows in confusion, and then shrugged and suppressed her own laughter as she stood up and snatched Parker up from the chair.

"Think that's funny do ya'?" She found his ribs with her fingers and tickled him, causing Parker to squirm in her arms and squeal with delight.

"Don't don't don't." He pleaded, but wasn't able to finish as his laughter shook his body once more and they fell onto the couch. Brennan's ams relaxed their hold on him and Parker saw his opportunity. He flipped over and found Dr. Brennen's ribs as well and began to tickle her right back.

"Parker!" She squealed like a little girl and balled up on the couch, unable to hold onto the squirming boy as the laughter seemed to have made her weak.

The wrestling continued as both tried to gain the upper hand over the other, and didn't stop until both were gasping for air. Brennan slumped into the couch and attempted to relax her face muscles because her cheeks were starting to ache.

Parker collapsed against her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"That was fun Dr. Brennan." He said breathlessly.

Brennan nodded and then after a few moments, "You know what Parker, I think it would be alright if you called me Tempe."

Parker looked up at her. "Can I call you Bones like Daddy does?"

Brennan sucked on her cheek and twirled the boys' hair absently. "I don't know Parker, that's kind of your dad's special name for me." Thinking of the nickname that way brought a warmth to her heart she hadn't known was there before. "You can have your own nickname for me if you'd like though."

Parker thought for a moment. "Elmo."

"What?" Brennan thought for a moment and realized Elmo was the name of one of the characters from Sesame St., her favorite show as a child. "Why Elmo?"

"Because," Parker grinned mischievously, "You laugh like my Tickle-Me-Elmo I have at home!"

Brennan couldn't think of a response before Parker again found the ticklish spot between her ribs. As she wrestled to protect herself against his small fingers her thoughts returned suddenly to Booth.

_I wonder what he is doing at this very moment while I am enjoying myself with his son…hey, I'm **enjoying** myself…with his **son**! Angela would have a fit if she knew that._

That thought brought a smile to Brennan's lips that was much larger and brighter than any the tickling had managed to muster from her.

**_Alright, everbody you know what to do._**


	5. The Terminal

**_Thank you so much for all the encouraging reviews! You make my day!_**

"Where is he Elmo?" Parker tugged at Brennan's shirt, using his nickname for her to get her attention.

"I don't know. C'mere, lets check the arrivals board." Brennan led Parker over to the large flight information board.

Brennan gripped Parker's hand tightly, afraid of losing him in amongst the busy airports' haggard travelers. She'd barely been able to talk Rebecca into allowing Parker to accompany her when she went to pick up Booth at the airport in the first place, there was no telling what she'd do if Brennan lost him while there. That is to say nothing of how Booth would react.

It had been a week and a half since Booth left on his mysterious mission/case, but when he called the night before to ask for a ride from the airport, Brennan couldn't help but notice he sounded as if he'd aged years in that short time. She'd been hesitant to agree, nervous, though the reason why eluded her That was why she decided to take Parker with her, his presence seemed to ease her anxiety.

"I can't see Elmo." Parker whined, so she leaned over and hoisted him up onto her hip, surprised to find how comfortable it seemed to have him there. Even after her weekend with him, Parker never ceased to amaze her. She wondered if he was aware just how like his father he was becoming.

"Here it is. Flight 8454 in from Oregon." She pointed at a highlighted row of numbers and information that Parker didn't even bother trying to comprehend.

"Will he be here soon?"

"Yes Parker, very soon."

He grinned and Brennan felt a small place somewhere inside her swell with pride at being responsible for bringing that smile to the his face.

-----------------------------------------------

Booth took slow methodic breaths, the only evidence of his breathing at all was the small violet next to his mouth tthat trembled slightly when he exhaled. He looked through the scope on his rifle and found the target within his sights.

He hadn't moved in hours, his legs and arms were numb from physical exhaustion, his heart was numb by choice. He'd been waiting for the right moment.

It had finally come. Inhale.

Exhale, squeeze the trigger. Inhale.

The sound like a clap of thunder rang out through the dense forest on the clear November morning. Booth didn't even flinch. He stared unblinking through the scope and seconds after the noise he watched the target fall to the ground 532yrds away.

Booth opened his eyes and took a deep breath of recycled air. It hadn't been a flashback. Booth had triggered the memory on purpose, replaying what he'd done over and over.

He always did. He had to be sure he'd done the right thing, at the right moment, for the right reason.

He'd always done that, and it usually brought him some peace, being able to justify his actions as necessary and appropriate. But this time was different. This time there was something nagging at him and he couldn't put his finger on it.

Booth pushed the snoring man next to him off his shoulder, and was reminded again of how annoyed he was with having to fly coach. The man's head lolled over to the other side and Booth inspected his Grateful Dead shirt for drool.

Thankfully, there was none.

"This is you're captain speaking," A muffled voice came from above, "please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for decent into DC."

Booth took another deep breath and fastened his seatbelt, suddenly wishing he'd ordered a drink from the flight attendant when she offered it.

It was time to return to his life. And while that was exactly what he wanted, it was easier said than done.

---------------------------------------

Booth entered the airport forty minutes later, feeling a little overwhelmed at all the activity around him after spending so many days in solitude. He searched the blur of faces around him for one that looked familiar.

He just wanted to see her, hear her voice. He wished he could hold her and never let go. Of course he knew she would never allow it. But still, he wished.

Booth was walking away from the terminal, his eyes still scanning for Brennen's face, when suddenly he stopped short.

It couldn't be her…could it? The woman he was looking at stood with all her weight on her left foot as a little boy sat perched on her right hip. The boy leaned in to her ear and whispered something, causing the woman to throw back her head and laugh, blue-gray eyes sparkling.

Booth felt his heart stop.

She was beautiful, her hair flowing down her back and around her shoulders, framing the striking features of her face. But the most gorgeous thing about her was that she was with Parker. His Bones was standing there, holding Parker as if he were her own, looking completely natural and at ease.

Booth took a few moments to watch them, allowing himself to stay blended in amongst the airport life. He couldn't see what Parker was saying, but a look of confusion had just passed over her face, a look Booth had grown to know and love. Then she wore that concentrated look that widened her eyes and pouted her lips as she struggled to understand whatever it was Parker was saying. Finally she smiled, a true, genuine, easy smile that Booth found was contagious.

When Brennan finally looked up and saw him, he was starting to feel like his old self again. He straightend his shoulders and flashed a 'charm smile' at her.

She looked at Parker, said something softly too him, and the boy whipped his head around toward Booth.

"Daddy!" Parker squirmed in Bones' arms and she quickly placed him on the floor and he took off running to his father.

Booth knelt down and opened his arms just as Parker launched himself into the air, doubt that his father would catch him never crossing his mind. Booth's strong arms wrapped around his son's puffy jacket as he snatched him from the air and held him close. He spun around in a circle and made Parker squeal.

"Oh, Parker. I missed you buddy." Booth squeezed his eyes shut and he breathed in the smell of sand and baby shampoo on Parker's hair. The smell of childhood innocence.

"Missed you too Daddy." Parker buried his head in his father's shoulder and gripped him tightly with short chubby fingers.

Brennan stood at the arrival board, her hands in her pockets, smiling as she watched the scene play out before her. She loved the way Booth's eyes lit up when he saw Parker, as if the small child was the source of all Booth's joy and life force. She turned and looked outside, allowing the two some privacy.

She watched as planes took off and landed out on the runway and tried to make herself believe that bringing Parker had been a purely plutonic gesture. A natural reaction to how sad and hollow he'd sounded on the phone. That it had been a logical way to calm her own nerves and also bring a smile to Booth's face. She shook her head silently at the thought that it could be something more.

"Hey Bones." Brennan was startled to find Booth's voice immediately behind her, she was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn't hear him approach.

"Hi Booth…" She said as she turned around, but stopped when he suddenly grabbed her arms and pulled her into a hug.

She stood stiff for a moment, and then slowly relaxed and wrapped her arms around him. She wasn't sure why they were in this embrace, but as much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, she really liked getting hugs from Booth.

"Thanks." He said softly, pulling away from her, "that's exactly what I needed."

She just shrugged and looked at the ground. "I just thought you'd like to see him after having to miss your weekend together."

Booth nodded appreciatively and turned his attention to his son who was tugging on the bottom of his leather jacket.

"Yeah Bub?" he stroked the child's hair softly.

"Daddy are we gonna get somethin' to eat?" Parker asked hopefully.

Booth opened his mouth to answer but Brennen cut in.

"I'm sorry Parker but I don't think we have time. I told your mom I was just going to bring you with me to the airport and then take you home. I don't want her to be upset."

She immediately regretted her words when she saw a look of disappointment and despair pass over his face, then looking up and seeing the same look mirrored in his father she felt her heart hit the floor.

"But…" She began slowly, chewing on her bottom lip. "I suppose planes get delayed…right?"

Both their faces brightened, causing Brennen to smile in annoyance at how easily Booth men seemed to manipulate her.

"Let me make a quick phone call and then we'll head someplace for a burger. How does that sound?"

"Great!" "Awesome!" Came the excited reply.

Brennen turned away, pulled out her cell phone and dialed Rebecca, trying desperately to ignore the silly looking victory dance father and son were performing behind her.

**_You know what to do..._**


	6. What you don't know about me

**_Ahhh! It's a thunderstorm outside! cowers under covers and posts next chap_**

"C'mon Booth! It's my car!" Brennan screamed as she chased the sneaky agent through the airport parking lot. His laughter traveled back to her ears and she was surprised at how fast he was able to run while parker clung to his back and he carried his duffel in his hand.

"May be your car Bones, but I've got the keys." He said breathlessly. He'd reached her car and quickly put Parker on the ground so he could hold the keys high out of her reach.

Brennan caught up to them and rolled her eyes as she punched him playfully in his stomach. It wasn't very hard but hard enough that he gasped and bent over to protect himself, bringing the keys down and within her grasp.

"Ha!" She said triumphantly, clasping her hand around the keys and taking the duffel to the trunk.

"Way to go Elmo!" Parker was jumping up and down excitedly, grinning like a kid who'd just arrived at Disneyland.

"Hey, whose side are…Elmo?" Booth gave his son a confused smile as he tried to understand the correlation between Bones and the furry red creature on TV.

"Uh-huh. That's my nickname for her 'cause I can't call her Bones 'cause that's your special name for her but she laughs like my tickle-me-Elmo and she said I could call her that 'cause she's really ticklish Daddy." Parker said all in one breath, but Booth understood every word.

"Ticklish huh?" Booth's face dissolved into an evil grin and moved toward his partner.

Brennan's eyes widened in horror and she slammed the trunk and took off for the driver's side door. Booth anticipated her and was already running when she took off. He caught her elbow before she even reached the door handle and spun her toward him, tickling her furiously in her side.

"No Booth! NO!" She tried to sound serious, but failed miserably as her body shook with uncontrollable laughter. She drew her legs up to her chest to try and hinder his efforts and was slightly surprised when Booth was able to remain standing, holding her in his strong arms several feet from the ground.

"Parker help!" She squealed, but Parker just stood a few feet away and clapped his hands, giggling at the sight of the two adults acting like kids on the playground.

Finally her muscles had turned to jelly and her grip on the keys loosened. Booth saw his opportunity and slipped his hand into hers and took the keys. When he set her carefully back on the ground however, expecting a flow of words from Bones' mouth that he would later have to try and purge from his son's vocabulary, he was surprised by what she did instead.

Brennan wasn't angry at him, though she was sure she should have been. Instead she felt the ground beneath her feet and simply leaned against Booth's chest as her strength slowly returned. Closing her eyes, she felt overwhelmed by the feelings of safety and warmth as she stood in his arms.

"Uh…Bones?" Booth asked cautiously, as he rubbed her back in slow circles.

Suddenly Brennan realized what she was doing and her eyes popped open and she pulled away quickly.

Booth tried to keep the disappointed look off his face by smiling at her. "Feel better?"

Brennan arched an eyebrow at him.

"Than what? I felt fine before."

Booth just shook his head. He wasn't sure he believed her, after all it had only been two weeks since that fateful day in the park when she'd found her father and lost him all in about twenty-four hours. He studied her for a second, finding the old familiar concern for her soothing as he slipped into it and away from his own haunting thoughts for a moment.

He watched carefully as she turned her back to him and reached for Parker's hand. "

Will you at least unlock the door so I can put your son in his car seat?"

Booth cleared his throat and shifted his feet. "Oh, I can do that if you want."

He hit the button on her keychain to unlock the door and the car's lights flashed in response.

"I can do it Booth, I'm not as clueless as you think." She lifted the front seat forward, revealing a small car seat in the back of her sports car.

"I didn't even know this car had a back seat." He said softly as he stared in amazement at his Bones who carefully placed Parker in his car seat and buckled him tight, as if she'd done it a million times before.

"There's a lot of things you don't know Booth." She pulled her head out of the car and smiled at him, then sauntered to the other side of the car and climbed in.

_Apparently._ Booth thought, smiling, as he opened his own door to join them.

_I can't wait to find out what else I'm missing._

-----------------------------------------------

The car ride to the diner was being spent mostly in amiable silence, like so many of their car rides were if they didn't have anything to bicker about.

Both the adults in the front seat were stealing glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't watching, hoping to gain some insight into what they were thinking.

Booth would let his eyes drift over her as he was "scanning the intersection for traffic". While Brennan would allow her eyes to rest on him a moment longer than necessary when she would turn around to "check on Parker".

Parker, on the other hand, felt cramped in the backseat of Brennen's car and had grown bored with the silence.

"Daddy, can we listen to the radio?" He asked innocently, trying very hard to be patient until they got to the restaurant.

"Sure Bub." Booth smiled at him in the rearview mirror as Brennan reached forward to turn on the radio.

Suddenly the sounds of coin money clinking against itself filled the silence in the small car followed by a smooth 'radio voice'.

**Need a little extra cash? Looking for someplace fun to spend you're Saturday nights? Then come and join us at Big River Casino in Downtown DC next to the Woodside Mall. There are drink specials at the bar after ten and were open all night Friday and Saturday. Come and join the fun, and remember, everyone's a winner at…**

The voice was cut off suddenly as Booth's panicky fingers flew to the radio controls and switched it off before another word could be said.

He took a deep breath of the silent air and tried to swallow, but his throat had gone dry. He'd heard that commercial so many times before and ignored it easily.

He'd felt nothing.

But this time, his heart rate quickened and pounded like it would leap right from his chest. He was hit with the desire to go gambling like a two-ton hammer to the forehead and it scared the life out of him.

At the next stoplight he laid his head back against the seat and closed his eyes, regulating his breathing, oblivious to the other people in the car.

Brennan stared at him openly from the passenger seat. No, she wasn't good at reading people, but she was good at reading Booth, and he'd just come as close to a panic attack as she'd ever seen him.

His fingers twitched nervously at the steering wheel and she watched as he drew one of his hands back to his jacket pocket and knew he was running his fingers over the poker chip he kept there.

Finally he opened his eyes and became aware of her stare.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly, trying not to alarm the boy in the back seat who'd become distracted by a blinking marquee sign on their right.

"Yeah, Bones, I'm fine." He pulled into the diner and turned off her car.

"Are you sure?" Brennan made no move to unbuckle herself or get out.

Booth just nodded and smiled reassuringly, hoping she would drop the subject. Brennan pursed her lips and gave a quick nod in response and got out of the car.

Brennan watched from the sidewalk as Booth unbuckled Parker and helped him from the backseat. She didn't believe for a second that he was really okay, but it wasn't a conversation, or an argument for that matter, that she wanted to have while Parker was around.

"Ready to eat Elmo?" Parker grasped Brennan's hand with one of his while the other remained in his father's. She nodded and they moved to the door.

_Yeah,_ Parker thought as he looked up at his dad and then at Brennan, _I like this._

**_Make my day, review!!_**


	7. What's the matter with you?

**_This chap is kind of short...but I rather like it. _**

Booth took another long sip of his beer, but left his burger mostly untouched. He ignored the looks of concern he was getting from his partner and tried to pay attention to what his son was telling him about school that week.

"And then we also learned the names of all the months and seasons and days of the week. And Ms. Brown says that next week she's going to start teaching us to read books! Real Books! We get to go to the library and everything!" Parker bounced happily in his seat next to Brennan and grinned.

"Do you like to read Parker?" Brennan questioned, stealing a fry from Booth's plate, just to let him know that she wasn't giving him special treatment even thought he was acting strange.

"He's four and a half Bones," He swatted her hand away, "he can't read, he likes to _be_ read _to_."

"Oh," Brennan's cheeks colored up a bit, and Booth smiled gently, realizing he'd embarrassed her.

"But thank you for thinking my son's so smart." His version of an apology, which Brennan chose to accept.

"Well he is smart, though I'm sure he gets that from his mother." Brennan smirked and Booth pretended to look hurt, before reaching across the table and stealing on of her onion rings.

"Hey!"

"Hey yourself. Turnabout's fair play." He grinned.

They continued to eat for a few moments before Parker's head suddenly shot up, flipping blonde curls out of his eyes, that immediately fell back into them. "Elmo?"

"Yes Parker?"

"Do you and Daddy have sleepovers? Like Mommy and Drew?" He studied his reflection in his spoon, completely ignorant of how much Brennan suddenly looked like Elmo as her face turned bright red.

Booth on the other hand was choking on a bite of burger, he wasn't sure he'd heard right. He used his beer to wash the meat down his throat and stared at his son.

"Excuse me?"

Parker looked up, surprised by the tense tone in his father's voice. He glanced at Brennen on his right who had suddenly found something very interesting to look at outside.

"I asked if you and Elmo have sleepovers because…"

"Stop that right now." This time both Brennan and Parker looked at him, shocked at the harshness in Booth's voice. "Why don't you head out to the car, I'll meet you in a minute."

Parker's eyes got shiny and his chin shook ever so slightly, but he didn't move.

"But Daddy…" He started, his voice two octaves higher than normal.

"_Now_." Booth cut him off and gave him a 'don't try me' glare.

Brennan saw that the child was about to break and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Go Parker, I'll be out in a minute." She said softly. Parker glanced at her and nodded, rising slowly from his seat and heading for the door.

"What's the matter with you?" She hissed as soon as Parker was out of earshot.

"Nothing! He was being…"

"He was being a child, nothing more. You snapped at him for no reason Booth." She gathered her napkin angrily and threw it on her plate.

"Don't stick your nose into things you don't understand Brennan." Booth muttered as he began to rise from his seat, staring so intently at the table that he didn't see the hurt pass over her face before her frown rebuilt itself.

She stood quickly and pushed his shoulder so he sat back down abruptly.

"You're right I _don't_ understand." She turned and started toward the door.

"Where are you going?"

She whipped around to smack him with an icy glare. "I'm taking Parker home. _You_ are staying here and _we_ are going to talk when I get back."

Booth glared at her back as he watched her walk outside and meet Parker by the car, who was sitting on the curb with his head hung low.

Just like at the airport he watched them interact. Only this time he couldn't see Brennen but he could see Parker. His son shook his head at a couple things Brennen asked him and then looked up at her. Booth caught his breath.

His son's cheeks were tearstained and his eye's red and puffy.

_I made him cry?_ Booth thought in disbelief. Suddenly he wanted desperatly to run outside, clutch Parker with his arms, and beg his small son for forgiveness. He never meant to hurt him.

But his legs wouldn't move, they were cemented to the floor, and he could only watch as Brennen bent over and picked Parker up, carrying him to her car as he rested his head on her shoulder.

Neither of them looked back.

Booth felt his heart being crushed under it's own weight.

**_So obviously the stress is getting to our guy...how much more of this can he take?_**


	8. Nightmares

**_I pretty much suck at A/Ns, but as always thanks for the reviews and even those of you who arent reviewing...thank you for reading. _**

"Ange, pick up!" Brennan whispered to her cell phone as she weaved through traffic on her way back to the diner, willing the phone to stop ringing.

As soon as the words left her mouth, Angela answered.

"Hey sweetie." Angela sounded cheerful, as usual.

"Ange I have a problem."

"What's wrong?" Ange's enthusiasm was replaced with concern at Brennan's tone.

"I…need to talk to Booth…but I'm not sure how." Brennan began, fumbling for words.

Angela was quiet for a moment. "Sweetie, I'm going to need more than that, what is going on?"

Brennan sighed, she was almost to the diner and didn't have time to give Angela all the gory details though she was sure that's exactly what she wanted. She didn't have time to explain the confusion she was feeling as far as her relationship with Booth went, how badly she wanted advice on what to do with it. Instead she stuck to recounting all the strange behavior from Booth that she could remember from the last week and a half.

"Oh, poor Booth." Angela said softly.

Brennan frowned. "Booth? Ange Parker was the one who got yelled at for no reason…"

"Yea, I know Bren," Angela interrupted, knowing her friend probably wouldn't understand unless things were spelled out plainly. "But obviously Booth is the one with the problem. Something has him completely freaked out. I mean, Parker will get over being yelled at by his father, but guilt has a way of eating at our favorite FBI agent...Booth may never get over making his son cry."

"I don't think he knows Parker was crying."

"Believe me sweetie, he knows." Angela sighed, trying to remember what the original subject was, "So what's you're problem exactly?"

"Ange, I don't know what to say to him. I don't know what to say to make him tell me what's wrong."

Angela was quiet for a moment. "Are you his friend?"

Brennan was startled by the question.

"His best friend." She replied quietly.

"I won't take offence at that by the way. Now, are you concerned about him?"

"Yes."

"Then **tell** him that Sweetie, it will be enough. Booth loves you, if you tell him you are worried about him, he'll want to ease your mind any way he can."

There was no teasing in Angela's voice and Brennan believed what she said.

_Booth loves me?_

"Okay. Thanks Ange."

Brennan parked the car outside the diner and went in, still attempting to order her thoughts into something coherrent.

Booth had waited for twenty minutes at the diner for Brennan to return. He'd spent the first half of the time with his head in his hands. He couldn't believe he'd yelled at Parker like that. He couldn't believe he'd made his son cry.

He hadn't meant to do it, he just…needed…needed…he needed this pounding in his head to subside for five seconds so he could think straight!

After ten minutes of abject self-loathing he'd taken to fidgeting nervously while he waited for Brennan to return, unsure of what either of them would say once she did.

A bell dinged at the door and seconds later Brennan plopped down in the seat across from him, piercing his skin with those cool blue eyes.

"Is he okay?" Booth finally mustered the courage to ask, though he didn't bring up his head to look at her.

Brennen nodded, _so he did see Parker crying_.

"He's going to be fine Booth. I just told him you were tired and didn't mean it."

"Good."

"Booth," She waited for him to look at her, "what is going on with you? You've been acting strangely since before you left."

Booth hesitated and shrugged. "Nothing."

"Seeley Booth." She said sternly, and caught his attention with her sudden use of his first name, "I don't like when you lie to me."

"I'm not lying." He said quickly, knowing that **that** within itself was a lie. He knew he wasn't okay, he just didn't know what to do about it.

"Booth, I may be socially out-of-touch, but I know you, and this," she nodded in his direction, "is not you."

Booth's face remained unreadable and he stared blankly out the window. He wanted to tell her, how badly he wanted to tell her, but...he couldn't. The mission guidelines had been specific. No one could know.

Not even his partner..and best friend.

Brennan sighed, realizing she was getting nowhere with the 'tell me everything because I say so' approach.

She reached out and took his hand resting on the table between them.

"Booth," she said softly, leaning in as if other people were trying to hear, "I'm you're friend, please let me be your friend. I'm worried about you."

She searched his eyes for a few moments, and was satisfied to see them start to soften a bit.

Booth rubbed his thumb softly over her knuckles, "I can't tell you much."

She frowned but he continued quickly, "Not because I don't want to, but because I actually...can't. It's classified. But I'll answer any questions I can."

Brennan seemed satisfied with this and pulled back from him.

"Lets start with 'where were you'?"

"Oregon."

"Why? What were you doing there?" She received nothing but a blank stare as response and realized this was a question he could not answer. "Fine, sorry. Why were you gone for so long?"

Booth shrugged. "I stayed until the job was done. Sometimes it takes less time, next time it could take more. You never know."

"There will be a next time?"

Booth nodded solemnly. "Most likely, yes."

Brennan frowned, she didn't like the sound of that. Whatever Booth had done to make him fall into this state, she did not want him to do it again.

"Was it a case or a mission? You used both to describe your leave of absence."

Again there was silence and a blank expression.

Brennan sighed and folded her arms in frustration.

"Well can you at least tell me why you look like ten miles of bad street?"

Booth tilted his head to the side and then laughed slightly.

"Road, Bones. Ten miles of bad road. And thanks by the way."

"I just meant that you don't look like your normal self, not acting like it either. You're fatigued, edgy, irritable and listless. You also have bags under your eyes." Brennen stated bluntly. "All signs of exhaustion."

Booth rubbed his hands over his face. He would have been offended if it hadn't been true.

"I just haven't been getting much sleep lately."

"That would fit my hypothesis. You look like you haven't slept in days."

Booth just nodded.

"Why have you been having trouble sleeping?"

"Nightmares." Booth said darkly, he saw her eyes narrow as she tried to comprehend why a grown man would be disturbed by 'nightmares'.

"Flashbacks really. Every time I try to fall asleep I'm…back there. I'm in the war, I can hear the explosions, the gunshots. I can see the people that…hurt me. Tortured me. I can hear my buddies calling me. Every time I try to sleep it's like that, so I just haven't been trying."

Brennan nodded slowly and moved to sit next to him, realizing that now was one of the moments when he needed physical contact more than reassuring words. Yet somehow, she was able to offer both.

Brennan reached for his hand and squeezed it under the table as she took a deep breath.

"I've had my fair share of nightmares too. I know they were nothing like your flashbacks…but…I think the part that was always more disturbing than the actual dream was the waking up. To wake up in a dark room, cold and alone. Like no one cares about you, and no one can save you." She looked at him before saying her next part, his brown eyes so full of honesty and trust they seemed to have a physical hold on her.

"So, if you'd like, I think that…well I can come back to your place with you. You need sleep and if you wake up, I'll be there. You won't be alone." He opened his mouth to say something but she continued before she lost her nerve. "I just thought your house made more sense since it would be less disorienting for you, if you do wake up, to wake up in your own bed in your own apartment. Waking up in strange places can be very disconcerting."

He put a finger on her lips. "You're rambling. And 'yes', I think that's a good idea. Thank you Temperance."

-------------------------------------------------

Brennan waited at his doorway until his breathing became rhythmic and even. They'd gone back to his place and had a few more beers per her suggestion. She could tell he was just slightly apprehensive about going to sleep, and she thought that the best sedative would simply be to get him as relaxed as possible, beer helped with that.

He began to snore softly and Brennan smiled.

_Goodnight Booth._ She went back out to her makeshift bedroom on the couch.

-----------------------------------

It was dark again. He didn't know how long he'd been out, he just wished he could slip into unconsciousness again before the men came back. To his right, in the cramped room barely big enough for two people, a soldier he'd known for about three months had stopped stirring long ago.

He was alone.

He tried to shift his body position and reduce the pressure on his throbbing shoulder, and almost passed out from pain. He could taste rusty liquid in his mouth, could no longer feel his whole right arm and his feet. **God his feet!**

He wasn't sure he'd ever walk again.

The door opened beside him and he suddenly was grasped roughly by one of his swollen wrists and pulled out into another slightly larger room. He knew what was coming, it had come countless times over the past few days...or weeks or years.

He didn't know anymore.

He knew only the pain as the blows rained down on him. Knew only the sound of his own muffled cries and harsh voices screaming at him in a language he did not understand. He felt himself being pulled upward, then dropped suddenly to the ground. He couldn't even break his own fall, his muscles weak from the beatings and loss of blood. A boot connected with his ribs and he heard the break echo out into the darkness. He felt himself vomit.

Suddenly the blows stopped, he was left in a crumpled heap on the ground, waiting. When no more came, he opened his eyes just slightly, and saw it. The shiny metal caught a glint of light that blinded him for a moment. He couldn't see who was holding the large knife, but he knew it was sharp and it was coming closer. Booth shut his eyes and prayed.

A slow, agonizing pain ripped through his battered body as the knife started to slice into his skin.

Booth sat straight up in bed and screamed. He screamed with all his might, screamed until he couldn't hear himself. Screamed until he couldn't breathe. When he stopped screaming he started pushing himself back against the headboard, trying to get away from the pain. And the knife. He hated knives.

His whole body shivered with cold sweat but Booth kicked the covers off himself, his heart beating so loudly it drowned out the soothing words of someone speaking beside him.

Brennan rolled off the couch when she heard the first scream. Her eyes darted around the dark room, her adrenaline waking her completely as she tried to remember where she was and who was screaming that way.

"Booth!" She stood and ran to the back of the apartment and found something she never thought she'd see.

Booth was pushed back as far as he could be, almost trying to make himself a part of his headboard. She could see sweat glistening all over his half naked body, but what caught her attention was his eyes.

In all the time she'd known him Brennan had known Booth to be a passionately emotional individual. She'd seen him angry, disappointed, hurt, overjoyed, amused and frustrated. But she'd never seen him afraid.

That was exactly what she saw now. Booth's brown eyes were huge and he looked terrified of something only he could see. She ran to his side and touched his arm.

"Booth." He flinched and looked at her. But he wasn't looking at her. He was looking past her, through her, he didn't see her.

She caught her breath when she saw tears glistening in his eyes.

"Oh, Booth." She reached out again, her own tears threatening to blind her.

"Seeley." She tried, when he still didn't seem to know who she was.

"Seeley, it's me...Temperance." She almost couldn't speak, the terror etched into his features, his body language, it was too much to bear. Not her Booth. Not her knight...he didn't get scared.

She sat on the bed next to him and suddenly, he seemed to simply collapse. He grabbed her by her middle and laid his head on her chest, his body shaking with sobs.

Brennan allowed her tears to roll down her cheeks and wrapped her arms around his head and shoulders.

"You're okay Seeley. I'm here. You're not alone. I'm right here."

His tears began to soak the shirt she was wearing and she rubbed his back softly but the tremors running through his body didn't seem to be subsiding.

"Oh Booth," She bent down and laid her head on his, "What did they do to you? What did they do to you baby?"

**_So what do you think? If you're someone who doesn't normally review, you can just poke the button and write a single word to let me know you're there. Anything would be fine...as for everyone else...Bellabun, angel6, BonesDBchippie...lookng foreward to your reviews._**


	9. The last word

**_What is up with the alerts? Here I was, posting my favorite chappie and thinking nobody liked it because I didn't get any alerts whatsoever. Then, I come and check and lo-and-behold, some of the most glowing reviews I've ever had are waiting! _**

**_Thank you SO much everyone, I'm glad you liked the characterization of the last part, and I know people want dirtyness...and I may be one of them, but not yet. Still lots to come..._**

The light of dawn crept in the window and slowly crawled across the bed, warming the two bodies laying side by side. Brennan sat stroking Booth's head softly, just as she had done most of the night.

Her fingers moved automatically, she wasn't really thinking about what the action meant. She just enjoyed the way her hands felt in his hair and was relieved that he was finally calm.

Booth eventually fell asleep after the nightmare, but slept fitfully. He often jerked slightly or shivers shook his body, waking Brennan who nodded beside him. She would start to talk to him and stroke his hair and for some reason it seemed to calm him.

In the darkness it had been easy, opening herself up and comforting him like that. But now, the light of day was shining through and she became acutely aware of the fact that she was sitting in his bed, with him laying in her arms...and she was not wearing pants.

Light hit her eyes and she strained to see the clock on the bedside table. It was almost eight. If she didn't show up within the next half hour people were going to start getting worried.

Her heart beat in her ears as she slowly and carefully began to slide out of the bed. She was glad Booth's grip around her middle remained slack and she rolled out from under his arm to put her feet on the floor lightly.

Padding in bare feet out to the living room she picked up her cell phone. She had two missed calls. Rather clumsily, she managed to pull on the pair of jeans she'd worn the day before while accessing her voice mail.

**Hey Sweetie, it's about 7am and I just dropped by your house to see how it went last night and if you wanted to ride to work together, but I guess you're already there. Talk to you later!**

Brennan frowned, she wanted to go to work, but the thought of leaving Booth alone and chancing him waking up without her put knots in her stomach. An annoying beep in her ear reminded Brennan that she had anther message to listen to.

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat and then a male voice she didn't immidiatly recognize.

**Dr. Brennen? This is Director Cullen. I've been trying to get a hold of Booth but he's not answering his phone, so I figured if anyone can contact him it would be you. Call me when you get this message, I have a case that needs his immediate attention.**

Brennan bit her lip and walked to the coffee machine, mulling over whether or not to call Cullen. She knew Booth would want to go to work as much as she did, but she was also very aware of how much Booth needed rest. And after last night's events, so did she.

Picking up her freshly brewed coffee, Brennan headed back to Booth's bedroom to check on him. She was about to open the door when she heard his voice. She paused, trying to tell if he was mumbling in his sleep, but then she heard him laugh slightly.

Peeking through the slightly ajar door, she looked and and saw Booth was sitting on the side of the bed, talking softly into his cell phone.

"Yeah buddy…No, no Parker I'm not mad at you…listen Parker, I was just tired. I didn't mean what I said, alright buddy? Daddy's sorry…yeah, I know, she's very smart…Did you guys have fun together last weekend?…I'll bet …you do?…Yeah Parker, I like Elmo too. I like her a lot…Sorry, Bones, not Elmo….Okay buddy, have a good day at school…I love you too…Bye." Booth shut his phone slowly and stared out into space for a moment.

After a few silent seconds he finally looked at the door.

"How long are you gonna stand there Bones?" He'd known she was there the moment she walked up.

Brennan started, almost spilling coffee on herself, and then timidly entered the room.

"How did you know I was there?"

Booth raised his eyebrows, trying not to smile at the bright shade of pink her cheeks were turning.

"Are you kidding?" Bones was a lot of things, sneaky not being one of them. At least not to a sensory sensitive sniper-trained FBI agent.

Brennan raised her eyebrows in return and passed her mug to him, "Coffee?"

Booth nodded, gulping a few sips down gratefullybefore giving it back. They sat next to each other on the bed in an awkward silence for a few moments, neither sure if they wanted to recount last nights events.

Finally Booth stood and started toward his closet, having decided he wasn't quite ready to talk about all the emotions swirling inside him after having her so close, in just about every way possible, all night long.

"Listen Bones, Cullen left me like eight voice mails, he's got a case for me so I've got to get showered and go." He watched as her features clouded and tried to escape the room before she protested. He didn't quite make it.

"Booth." She said, moving to the doorway, blocking him in. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

He stepped back, flinging the towel over his shoulder and resting his hands on his hips. "What do you mean?"

"Booth, you really need to rest, why don't you take the day off?" She said it as gently as she could, but could see his features darkening anyway.

"I'm fine Bones." He wanted to get back to his old life, with criminals he was under no obligation to kill. Where there would people to hold him back if he got the sudden urge to kill them anyway.

"But Booth…"

"Look, I'm an adult, I can handle myself." He felt his tension rising and took a deep breath to calm himself. She just didn't understand, he _had_ to work. After last night, 'rest' was the furthest thing from his mind.

"Booth, you're not any good to anyone if you're exhausted and you'll get suspended if you hurt any of the suspects."

He gave her a strange look, had she just read his mind?

"Why would I do that?"

Brennan rolled her eyes ever so slightly.

"Because you have a very short temper when you're irritable and I'm beginning to notice that you're irritable when you're tired." She stated in her matter-of-fact way.

Again, Booth sighed, reigning in the temper she'd just called him on.

"Look, Bones, I know how to do my job, just step aside."

She crossed her arms.

"No." She watched his face turn red and wondered if maybe she really should do as he asked.

"Bones," he warned, "move. Now."

She dropped her arms reproachfully and turned sideways so he could brush past her, but her mouth twitched.

She really liked to have the last word.

"You know I'm right Booth."

He stopped. Of course he knew she was right! Why did she always have to do that?

Brennen watched his large frame tense in the dark hallway.

"Temperance! I'm fine, really. Will you just leave me alone?"

He regretted saying it before the words even left his mouth and he turned around to face her. His heart broke at the sight of anger and pain written all over her face.

"Bones I…"

She shied away from his touch as he reached out for her shoulders and slipped past him down the hallway.

"Fine." She called over her shoulder. "I will."

She started gathering up her things from around the living room, moving furiously, trying to keep her mind busy in order to keep the tears brimming in her eyes from falling. She'd been there for him, something she wouldn't have done for anyone else. She'd allowed herself to open up to him, to feel his pain last night even though she didn't know the source of it. And look what it got her.

_I'm such an idiot._

Booth grabbed her elbow as she reached for the doorknob, but she pulled it forcefully from him.

"You asked me to leave you alone," she kept the tears out of her voice with practiced ease, "I would appreciate it if you would do the same."

Then she opened the door just enough to fit through, slipped out, and pulled it shut behind her.

_**I know I know, that was just cruel, review anyway? Please?**_


	10. Forgive me Bones?

_**Hello everybody! Thank you for all the reviews, especially you timid types who give me the one word replys so I know you're not just Phantoms of the Ficdom.**_

Booth stared at the door for a few seconds, his mind trying to catch up with everything that had just happened.

When it did, he cursed himself loudly and opened the door, but it was too late. As he ran down the hallway he heard a car door slam shut and Brennan's Mercedes sped away from the curb.

"Dammit!" He slammed his fist into the wall, ignoring a pain that announced he'd broken the flesh on his knuckles.

He stood there for a moment trying to calm himself before a neighbor poked her head out the door.

"Seeley? Are you alright?"

The elderly woman who sometimes watched Parker for him eyed the half-naked man in the hallway.

Booth made his way back to his door.

"That's a good question Ms. Hayworth, but the jury is still out." His door clicked shut.

---------------------------------------

An hour later Brennan strode into the Jeffersonian, her arms loaded down with paperwork she'd meant to finish last night and never got the chance.

"Uh-oh."

Angela heard Hodgins speaking next to her and looked up from her drawing.

"What?"

He nodded toward Brennan who wore the mask of a warrior and her no-nonsense stiletto heels.

"Dr. B is on the war path."

Angela nodded, noting the flushed appearance of Brennan's face and the way she seemed to be almost stomping to her office.

"I'll go see what's up." She started off the platform and heard Hodgin's half joking voice behind her.

"Okay, but don't get hurt."

Brennan quickly unlocked the door to her office and threw her things down on her desk, so furious she couldn't even decide what she wanted to do next.

"Sweetie, what's the problem? Is everything okay?" Angela appeared at Brennan's door, wearing cute ballerina flats, a sundress and an intrigued expression on her face.

"Booth! That's the problem!" Brennan put her hands on her hips and paced behind her desk, she'd wanted to talk to Angela anyway so she didn't see any point in being evasive.

"Isn't it always? Bren, hold on Sweetie, just calm down." Angela moved to shut the door and walked closer to her firend.

"Tell me everything."

Brennan sighed and began speaking so fast even Zack would have had trouble keeping up.

"He isn't making any sense. He's allowing his emotions to dictate his actions. I did that and look what it got me! Why did I go there? I should have known better, that was so stupid. Why was he acting that way? It's completely irrational!"

"Whoa, Bren, just…whoa." She reached for her friends' arms and tried to calm her.

"You need to talk slower and start at the beginning."

Brennan nodded, "Okay," she took a deep breath, "It started yesterday, after I got off the phone with you. I went back to the diner and talked to him like you said. I asked him to tell me why he was acting so strangely. He insisted he was fine, which is just ridiculous because..."

"Bren." Angela stopped her from starting to ramble again before she had a chance to find out what was going on.

"Sorry." Brennan took another deep breath. "I asked him what he was doing the past week and a half, but he said he couldn't tell me because it's confidential, whatever that means. I don't really know because he obviously didn't give me any details."

Angela stood back to allow her friend more free space to continue her pacing. She'd never seen Brennan so worked up.

"When I asked why he looked so exhausted he said he hasn't been sleeping. Apparently he's been having nightmares."

"How long do you think it's been since he's slept?"

"I don't know, three or four days at least."

Angela winced, she knew how irritable she got if she missed even an hour of her precious beauty sleep.

"Well, I guess they're more flashbacks than nightmares. He seemed really upset about it so I offered to stay with him last night."

Brennan sunk into her chair and put her head in her hands. She felt completely stupid for doing that, but she also couldn't stand the thought of Booth having a night like he had last night and suffering through it by himself.

Angela gasped.

"That would help for sure!" She grinned suggestively and waggled her eyebrows. Brennan was not amused.

"Not like that Ange. I just…I know what it's like to have a really horrible dream and wake up to find yourself all alone, so I promised to be there for him if he had a nightmare and woke up."

"Did he?" Angela sat down in a chair across from Brennan, who nodded and closed her eyes, remembering.

"Yes. God Ange, it was horrible, he was terrified. He was screaming and trying to push himself back away from…something. I couldn't calm him." She took a ragged breath and leaned on her desk. "Finally, whatever it was seemed to fade away and he grabbed me and hugged me. He…he was crying Ange." Brennen's voice broke and she looked down.

Angela blinked hard, the thought of Booth being so undone bringing tears to her eyes.

"Poor Booth." She whispered.

"And then this morning he decided he needed to go work on a case Cullen wanted to give him," Brennan stated, some of the angry fire returning to her stomach. "I tried to convince him to stay home and rest and he just blew up at me. He said he knew how to do his job and just to leave him alone which is completely illogical because the last thing he needs is to be alone. That was the **last** thing he wanted last night. He's a mess, Ange, and he won't tell me what's going on."

Angela mulled for a moment and studied the other woman's glassy blue eyes.

"Well, what does your gut tell you Sweetie?"

"Nothing. Except on occasion that I am hungry." Brennan sat back in her chair, her tone taking on a scientific impatience everyone recognized. Anglea rolled her eyes and sat forward.

"Work with me here Bren. What do you think is wrong?" Brennan looked at her computer to avoid Angela's eyes.

"I don't…Well, if I was **forced **to make a guess," she glanced accusatorily at Angela, who smiled in innocence, "I would say it has something…to do with the war. Something happened while he was away that brought back a lot of bad memories for him. But…that still doesn't explain why he's mad at me!"

Angela felt a little pity at her friends' obvious confusion and frustration and reached forward to take her cold hand.

"Sweetie, Booth is…well, Booth. He's…what do you call him? The alpha-male. He's strong and independent, just like you. He's the protector. Last night, you saw him vulnerable and terrified. If I was a betting woman, which I happen to be, I'd say that Booth is frustrated with himself and out of his mind with exhaustion. His hostility has nothing to do with you."

She gave her hand a small pat and then rose to leave Brennan's office, but as she reached the door she stopped and turned around.

"Nothing except that you are probably the one person who can help him out of it." Angela gave her friend one last reassuring smile left.

As she watched her leave the words slipped off Brennan's tongue before she could stop them.

"Do you think he loves me?" Her face betrayed all the apprehension and hope that one question held for her as she waited for Angela's reply.

Angela smiled at her as if she was a child in need of assurance that there were no monsters under her bed.

"Oh sweetie, who do you think you're talking to? I don't think, I **know**."

Angela shut the door and Brennan bit her lip to prevent a smile she was afraid to acknowledge.

_Is that a good thing?_

-----------------------------------

It was nearing eight o'clock, the rest of the staff had left nearly two hours ago, but the Forensic Anthropologist sat at her desk working with the same dedication she had at ten in the morning.

Brennan heard his footsteps approaching long before she could smell his cologne or see his face. She tensed at the thought of what was coming next and refused to look away from her computer screen.

"Can I help you with something Booth?" She asked quietly, after allowing him a few seconds to observe her at the door, seconds she knew he thought she was unaware of.

Booth straightened and stepped inside her doorway.

"Hi Bones."

She let her eyes flicker toward him and then returned to her computer screen.

"You didn't answer my question."

Booth rubbed his face as he walked toward her couch, his eyes felt heavy and he suddenly had an uncontrollable urge to take his weight off his legs.

"Listen Bones, I…wanted to say that I'm sorry." He glanced at her, and looked away quickly. He loosened his tie and cleared his throat, gathering his thoughts.

Brennan watched him closely, hoping to see any signs of improvement. She thought she saw some, but not as much as she would have liked.

"Booth, you don't have to apologize…" she rose from her seat and stood beside her desk, all her resolve and anger at him had melted at seeing him so distraught.

Booth shook his head and met her eyes for the first time.

"Yes I do. You've been nothing but good to me Temperance and I was a jerk. You've been great with Parker, who, by the way has called me three times today just to see if you were with me." He smiled at her, his eyes wearing a smile only talking about Parker could put there. "He says he misses his Elmo."

Brennan smiled, "I miss him too." Then, her expression turning serious, "But Booth…"

"And thanks for last night." Again he cut her off, this time rising from the couch and moving toward her, "I…um, don't remember much, but I remember…being scared." He spoke so softly she leaned foreword ever-so-slightly to be sure she heard him, "and I remember your voice. And it, uh…it helped." He nodded to himself. "So thanks."

Brennan shrugged, smiling. "We had a deal, I was just sticking to it." Booth looked confused so she continued. "In the car, after I thought Russ…you said next time you were scared you would hug me. I just wanted to make sure I didn't owe you or anything."

He played with the dice in his hand, smiling at her attempt to make light of the situation. When he looked up, he caught her gaze with his own and neither looked away. They were locked in a stare both knew 'just friends' would never share.

"Thanks Bones." He stepped closer to her.

She waited a few seconds, feeling the closeness of him, and then smiled and smacked him lightly in the arm, moving away, and knowingly breaking the connection that scared her so much.

"Stop thanking me Booth. You would do the same for me."

Booth nodded, but didn't return her playful smile. "You know I would."

She sat back down at her computer, fully intending to continue working. But Booth rounded her desk and pulled her up from it.

"No way Bones, it's almost eight-thirty. You're not staying here to work anymore."

"What? Booth let go of me I really need to finish…"

"No," She was starting to get annoyed with him continually interrupting her. "Bones, it's not going to happen." He grabbed her coat and started pulling it on her, whilst she protested loudly.

"But Booth, I've gotten really behind on this paperwork for the African Safari exhibit, there's multiple emails that need to be replied to and I'm pretty sure I lost my pen." She continued getting her stuff together to go, even though she protested doing just that.

"You mean this pen?" he pulled a ballpoint pen out of the bun of her hair.

"Oh. Yeah. That."

He put his hand on her back and guided her out of her office and then, out of the Jeffersonian. She relaxed at his touch and forgot all about wanting to stay and work.

Brennan stood outside at her car, fumbling with her keys and trying to decide whether or not to offer to come over again. She didn't know what she hated more, thoughts of seeing Booth that way, or the thought of him being scared without her there.

Booth decided for her.

"I'll call you tomorrow Bones." He started to walk away and then turned and came back.

"Listen, Parker has a half-day of school tomorrow and Rebecca is letting me take him out for the afternoon. Maybe you'd like to join us for lunch?" He gave her his best charm smile, but he didn't need to use it.

Brennan's face immediately brightened at the thought of seeing Parker again. "Really? You wouldn't mind?"

Booth wished he could kiss her right there.

"Bones, I wouldn't ask if I didn't want you there. Besides, Parker is in love with you, I'll be Dad-of-the-Year if I bring you with me." He grinned.

"Okay, call me when you want me to be ready to go."

They parted ways, going toward their separate cars, but neither of them could stop smiling the whole way home.

**_There, see? All is right in the world again and we get more Parker! Now if only we could get our alerts back..._**


	11. TaterBurgers

**_UGH! I'm in total Bones withdrawl...and no alerts SUCKS!!_**

"You coming with Bones?" Booth turned off the ignition and reached for the door handle.

"No, that's okay, I'll wait here." Brennan looked at her hands, suddenly slightly uncomfortable to be there with him.

Booth just rolled his eyes and pushed the button on her seatbelt to release her.

"Just come on Bones."

Brennan contemplated for a moment as Booth walked around the front of the car. When he took one last glance at her and started up the sidewalk she threw open her door and ran to catch up with him.

"Yeah, I probably should come with you to make sure Parker wants to go. After all, we both know he likes me better than you." Brennen bit back a grin as Booth gave her an appalled look and quickened her pace.

"My son? Likes you, a squint, better than me?" Booth sounded as if she'd just announced that she was related to the Tooth Fairy, he too quickened his pace to keep up with her.

"I'm not just a squint, I'm **the** squint, Booth." She broke out into a run, laughing when Booth protested and ran up beside her.

"No way Bones, I catch bad guys. Parker definitely likes me better." He reached across in front of her to hold her back as he sprinted the rest of the way to the door.

"Hey!"

Booth rang the doorbell and she repaid him for cheating by elbowing him playfully in the ribs.

"He likes me better."

"Does not."

"Does to." Brennan stuck out her tongue, in a rather uncharacteristically childish gesture, but quickly retracted it when Rebecca opened the front door.

"Hi." Rebecca leaned on the door frame, obviously blocking entry into her house. She noticed Brennan standing beside him.

"Are you working today Seeley?"

"Oh…no." Booth motioned toward Brennan at his side. "Bones is joining me and Parker for lunch."

"Hi Rebecca." Brennan nodded at her.

Rebecca returned the gesture and looked over Seeley's partner, trying to keep a polite smile on her face. She felt a part of her die. Seeley was really past her, he was finally entering into a real relationship.

Even though she was sure he would deny there was anything was between them, Rebecca knew Booth would only introduce Parker to someone he was serious about. She was a suprised when she found out he'd spent the weekend with her, and even more suprised when Parker told her he enjoyed it. Dr. Brennan wasn't like the other silly flings Booth had had over the years, and she'd been spending a lot of time with Parker lately. Dr. Brennan was the real deal, and Rebecca knew it.

Somehow, knowing that made her happy and sad at the same time.

Finally Rebecca returned her gaze to Booth, with sad eyes and a small smile.

"Good for you Seeley." She said quietly.

Booth studied her face for a moment, and captured her meaning.

He nodded slowly, "Thanks Rebecca."

Brennan watched the interchange and felt like she was looking at them from another room. Another planet. She was sure there was some sort of conversation going on that had nothing to do with the one she was hearing.

_They're reading between the stripes, or something like that. I'll have to ask Booth later._

Parker heard the doorbell from his room and came barreling down the stairs and around the corner. The first thing he saw was his father out on the doorstep.

"Daddy!" The boy opened his arms as wide as he could, putting some wind resistance on his running. But as he got closer he saw that his father was not alone.

"ELMO!" Parker picked up speed and rushed at Brennan, who had to brace herself for the impact of his flying hug.

She bent low, picked him up and wrapped her arms around him. She loved doing that.

"Hi Parker." Then looking at Booths she whispered, "I told you so."

Booth rolled his eyes.

"Bye Rebecca."

The trio turned away from the door and started toward the car. Booth placed his hand on Brennen's back to guide her while she grasped Parker's hand.

"Bye Rebecca." Brennan said politely, feeling a little bit guilty, like she was walking away with the family Rebecca could have had.

"Bye Mommeeeeee!!!" Parker's farewell turned into a squeal as his father snatched him off the ground near the car and tickled him.

"Ignore me? Your own father? For a squint? You will pay for that!"

"Daddy," Parker giggled, "Elmo isn't a squint. She's **the** squint!"

Brennan smiled cheekily at Booth's surprised expression and climbed into the car, satisfied with having won, yet again.

--------------------------------------------------

"Oh no Ange." Brennan turned away from the table to speak louder into her cell phone.

Across from her, Booth and Parker were playing finger soccer with tiny balls of napkin paper while waiting for the food to come.

Booth looked up when he heard Brennan's distressed tone.

'Well when do they think they can fix it?" Brennan drug her hand across her face as she listened carefully to Angela's analysis of the situation.

"I don't know Sweetie. The electric company was here and they say they'll have to check the wiring in the whole building. It will probably take the rest of the day." Angela quickly turned away from her partner in crime, Hodgins, who was trying desperately to make Angela laugh and spoil her plans.

"Really? That's awful." Brennan shook her head.

_Now when am I supposed to finish that analysis of the my Revolutionary War skeleton?_

"Yeah, I know. So anyway, you might as well take the rest of the afternoon off, you can't do anything in a dark lab." Angela smiled at the look of mock disapproval Hodgins was giving her.

"Yea, you're probably right. Just make sure Zack checks to make sure the generators have kicked on in the cryogenics lab, we don't want any of the materials in there to get too warm."

"I'll make sure he knows Sweetie. Bye!" Angela hung up the phone just before she burst into laughter.

"That was my best plan yet!" The grin that brightened her face made Hodgins want to dance.

"Yea, but what is she going to do to you tomorrow when she finds out the power never went out and you made her take half a day off for nothing?"

"I'm not worried," Angela practically floated off the platform, "She'll be so happy after spending the afternoon with Booth, she probably won't care."

"Probably?" Hodgins raised his eyebrows in his 'conspiracy theory' smirk.

Angela shrugged, "What's life without risks?"

-------------------------------

"Everything okay with Angela?" Booth asked after Brennan closed her phone.

"Yeah," She sighed, "But the lab lost power, everybody has the rest of the day off."

Booth was amused at her reaction to this news.

"Your words say 'good' but your tone says 'bad', so it's very confusing." Booth laughed at his own near-almost perfect imitation of his partner.

Brennan smiled.

"You can't use my own words against me." She threw an out-of-bounds paper ball at him and he feigned astonishment.

Parker's eyes lit up. "Does that mean you can come to Putt-Putt with us?"

"What's Putt-Putt?" Brennan drew her eyebrows together in a confused frown.

"Please Daddy, can she come?" Parker gave puppy-dog eyes to his father, the very ones his father had originally given to him.

"Of course she can Bud, that is if she wants to." Booth ruffled his son's hair, turned to Brennan and smiled at her expression. That cute, I-don't-know-what-that-means, expression.

"What's Putt-Putt?" She repeated as the waitress sat their food down in front of them.

"Miniature golf Bones." Booth cut into his steak and smiled when he saw it was perfectly cooked on the inside.

Brennan poured her salad dressing in a zigzag pattern while she pondered this.

"How can golf be miniature? As I recall it's a game that requires a relatively large amount of space."

Booth ignored her question as he stared at his son.

"What are you doing Parker?" He sat down his fork and folded his hands in front of his mouth to hide an amused smile.

Parker looked up from his plate, where he was piling as many French fries as he could on top of his hamburger.

"Makin' a Tater-burger." He said, lifting the burger to his mouth, which could now barely fit around both buns due to it's expanded height.

"Yea, I used to love Tater-burgers!" Brennan laughed as ketchup squirted out of the sandwich and began it's decent down Parker's chin. She grined as she reached over to wipe it off with her napkin.

"You know what 'Tater-burgers' are but not miniature golf?" Booth was constantly amazed at how Brennan's almost childlike view on the world. Things she should understand were lost on her, yet things he wouldn't think she would comprehend in a million years, came as second nature.

Booth shook his head.

"Where in the world are you from?"

Brennan stared at Booth as if he'd grown a third eye.

"Ohio."

**_Review please! Even though I won't know you've done so until I come back and check manually...do it anyway!!_**


	12. Token for your thoughts

**_Dang!! My hits have taken a serious drop since no more alerts. This SUCKS! Powers that Be, PLEASE give us back our alerts!!!_**

Booth's SUV pulled into a parking lot with splitting asphalt and weeds growing in the cracks and parked directly in front of the door. The small lot was mostly deserted, there were only three other cars around.

"This is it?" Brennan asked in disbelief as she got out of the car. She glanced over the worn out building trying not to frown. It essentially looked like a storage warehouse except for the lit neon sign above the door that read, 'Putt-Putt Miniature Golf'.

The Booth men joined her at the front of the car, shielding their eyes from the early summer sun.

"Yeah, I love Putt-Putt. It's **so** much fun, c'mon I'll show you." Parker grabbed Brennan's arm and pulled her toward the door with surprising strength.

She glanced back at Booth feeling slightly apprehensive, she was still not sure 'motherhood' or anything like it suited her. She could manage it, yes, but she wasn't sure she was good at it. The slightly run down building she was being drug toward didn't boost her confidence much either.

"Don't worry Bones, it'll be fun. I promise." Booth strode past them and held the door open.

"If you say so." She grumbled.

Inside, the large room was lit dimly and their eyes took a moment to adjust. To the left and right were rows and rows of arcade games making random, joyous electronic noises. Some games talked, enticing potential players to try, others simply blinked different colored lights, some played music and still others made noises like ringing bells.

Brennan, who'd never been to an arcade before, listened carefully as Parker explained their routine eagerly to her while simultaneouslytrying to take in her noisy enviroment.

"These are all the games Elmo. After golf we come back inside, get some pizza, and Daddy gives me tokens to play the games. Then I use my tickets and get prizes!"

Parker pointed across the room at a glass counter filled with cheap toys kids love, bouncy balls and costume jewelry abounded. Further behind the counter were electronics and large stuffed animals.

"Parker!" A dark-haired woman came from the pizza area wiping her hands on a dish towel and smiling.

"Ms. Miller!" Parker took off across the room toward the woman.

"So, what do you think Bones?" Booth placed his hand on the small of Brennen's back to guide her further inside the building toward the other woman and Parker.

Brennan furrowed her brow thoughtfully.

"I think this establishment is designed specifically to monopolize on young brains and their euphoric triggers as to release a high amount of seratonin. The blinking lights and all the noise is meant to keep a child interested for longer periods of time, while diminishing their need for other things such as sustenance and relaxation because of the effects of adrenaline and…"

Booth laughed and shook his head.

"What?" Brennen gave him a confused look.

"Nothing Bones, just…"

"Seeley Booth, lot of nerve you have coming in here after so long away." He was interrupted by the dark-haired woman they'd been slowly approaching, as she pulled him into a hug.

"Hi Candace." He said, pulling away. "This is my friend Temperance, Bones this is Candace. I coach her son and Parker on the t-ball team."

Brennan shook the other woman's hand and watched curiously as she gave her the same scrutinizing look Rebecca had.

Then turning to Booth she said, "Good for you Seeley."

Though they were the same words, Brennen noticed she'd spoken in a much more upbeat tone than Rebecca.

Booth nodded and smiled while Brennan gave him a puzzled stare.

"Ms. Miller? Can we play golf?" Parker tugged on the woman's apron.

"Of course you can kiddo. You know where the clubs are."

Parker nodded and Booth and Brennan followed him through the large glass doors that led to the golf area out back.

Parker reached up onto the counter where dozens of small golf putters were lined up in a row. He handed one to his father and one to Brennan.

"What color ball do you want Bones?" Booth slipped his sunglasses on his face and clapped his hands.

Before she could answer Parker began waving his hands wildly and jumping up and down.

"I want blue! I want blue!"

Booth gave him a warning look.

"Please." Parker added quickly

Booth tossed him a blue golf ball and looked expectantly at Brennan.

"Can't I just have white?"

Booth wrinkled his nose. "Why?"

She shrugged.

"I like white."

Booth just shook his head, grabbed a white ball along with a green one, and started toward Parker who was already getting ready at the first hole.

"Alright, you can go first son." Booth produced a scorecard and miniature pencil from his pocket and wrote down their names.

"Watch this Elmo! I'm really good at this." Parker said proudly, carefully lining up his shot, his long blonde curls doing him absolutely no good as he struggled to peer through them.

Brennan watched Parker attentivly as he began his back-swing, and connected with the ball. It ricocheted off the tiny metal walls, rolled across the green Astroturf, and around the corner toward a tiny hole.

"Aww man!" Parker shook his head at the ball as it stopped inches from the hole.

"It's alright Parker, you'll get it next time. You wanna give it a try Bones?" Booth grinned mischievously, knowing she'd never played before.

Temperance glared at him as she walked to where Parker had been standing.

"What? Think I can't do it?"

Booth shrugged innocently, "I have no doubt you can do anything you put your mind to Bones."

He watched the genius doctor wind up for her first shot, ending up missing it entirely.

"Want some help Bones?" Booth offered as Brennan gave the ball a look that might cause it to burst into flames.

"If a child can do it so can I." She declared.

The second time, she did connect. She whacked it so hard it hit the far wall and came right back.

Brennen's face turned red and she glared at the small object. She heard Booth beside her holding back laughter and turned her glare on him.

"What's so funny?" She snapped.

He immediately sobered. "Nothing."

He leaned over, placed his ball on the ground, and hit it with ease. The green ballricocheted in much the same pattern Parker's had and ended it's journey very near the hole. Brennan frowned at his back and moved to take another shot.

Father and son excused themselves to the bathroom to avoid bursting out in laughter in front of her, after her second shot turned out much like the first.

Seven holes and dozens of strokes later, Booth studied the score card. Parker was in first, since Booth didn't think it was right to crush the spirit of a four-year-old. Booth was in second and Brennan brought up third with a score that was almost laughable.

He watched as Brennan got ready to take her turn, frustration and embarrassment evident in the rosy color of her cheeks.

Booth's heart went out to her.

"Bones...just hold on a second."

Brennan stopped and turned to him, pursing her lips as she tried not to curse at him right there. Both Booths had promised her this would be fun.

Temperance Brennen was _not_ having fun.

Booth handed his club to Parker and walked toward his partner.

"First off," Booth took her by the shoulders and moved to stand behind her, "You're playing golf, not hockey, croquet, or shuffleboard."

He pulled her back to him and put his arms over hers, ignoring the way her body stiffened slightly and guiding her hands onto the club.

"Second," He craned his neck so his head was next to hers, resting lightly on her shoulder and talking into her hair, "it's called miniature golf for a reason. Don't hit it so hard."

They're bodies moved as one as he showed her how to swing at the ball, stopping just short of it and leaving it undisturbed.

Brennan felt his breath on her cheek and ear and tried make the pace of her heart go back to normal.

_Stop acting like a schoolgirl and pay attention!_

"Last," Now he was whispering, taking in her scent and relishing in the warmth of her body against his, "it's just a game Bones. Relax and have fun."

After lingering a second too long, Booth withdrew his hands from on top of hers and backed away.

"Try again." He said gently.

Brennan glanced at him and he gave her a reassuring smile.

He watched as her face took on a concentrated look, almost as intense as when she was studying her bones.

Brennan carefully took aim, swung softer than before and connected with the ball. Her face brightened little by little as the white sphere took it's desired course, banged two walls and disappeared into the hole.

She gasped.

"I did it!" She threw her hands in the air and her face split into a grin.

"Booth! I did it! I did it!" Before she knew what she was doing she was running at the man and wrapping her arms around his neck in a very un-Brennenlike display of excited affection.

Booth got over his surprise at her outburst quickly and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the ground.

"Yes you did Bones. You did great."

Parker watched happily a few feet away as his Elmo jumped into the arms of his dad, for the second time that he could remember, they acted like kids instead of grown ups. He didn't mind, he liked them like that.

Brennan suddenly realized she was in the arms of her partner and squirmed until he placed her on the ground. Her cheeks were bright red when Booth looked at her, smiling at her discomfort.

"Happy?"

Temperance scowled at his giddy grin.

"Isn't it time for pizza?"

Parker lit up. "Oh yeah! Pizza!" He dashed off for the door and Brennan followed, leaving Booth with a disappointed, but not altogether surprised, look on his face.

The three settled into a small booth at the back of the arcade area and Candace placed a pizza in front of them.

"Can I have some money for tokens?" Parker asked, cheese strings hanging from his chin and his mouth full of pepperoni pizza.

Booth didn't bother telling his son not to talk with his mouth full and simply dug into his wallet for a five-dollar bill. He winked at his curly haired son who returned the gesture quickly and ran away to find a game to play.

Booth laughed and looked at Brennan, who was smiling warmly in Parker's direction.

"Watcha thinkin' Bones?" He wiped his mouth with his napkin and studied her with intense brown eyes.

Brennan sipped her pop and shrugged, picking at her pizza.

"He's a great kid. That's all." She glanced at him and then away again, unsure if she should tell her partner just how attached she'd grown to his son.

Booth nodded, looking toward Parker who was whapping moles on the head with a rubber mallet and loving every minute of it.

"He's in love with you, ya' know." He added nonchalantly.

Brennan's pizza stopped halfway to her mouth. "What?"

"Yup." Booth smiled at her wide eyes full of shoc.

"In fact, he called me the other day to tell me he decided he wanted to be a scientist just like you." he shook his head, "You're actually turning my son into a squint Bones, I may never forgive you."

Brennen smiled easily. "You're welcome."

Their conversation was interrupted with the ringing of a phone.

"Booth."

"Brennen."

It was Booth's phone, Brennen set hers down and pretended not to listen to her partner as he carried on his conversation.

"Major Booth."

Booth sat up straight at the sound of the General's voice, instantly losing his appetite.

"Yeah?"

"We have another assignment for you. The information has been delivered to your apartment. Please take care of it as soon as possible."

Booth felt his blood run cold, the euphoria of having Brennan in his arms and watching Parker play faded instantly as the reality of what the General was saying hit him.

_Take care of it as soon as possible._ _As if I were going to the grocery store for a loaf of bread, not dropping my life and heading out to kill someone._

"Understood." He replied dryly.

Booth shut his phone and stared at his plate, fully aware of Brennan's piercing gaze.

"It's time to go." He mumbled, gathering their things and rising from the booth.

Brennan watched him, frowning, as he threw away their trash and went toward Parker.

In a matter of moments he'd gone from the fun-loving, irritating Booth she knew, to the dark, brooding Booth she'd seen only a few times before.

Times she preferred not to think about.

Brennan got up from the table and walked over to Booth and Parker, getting within earshot just in time to hear the tale end of their conversation.

"But Daddy! I haven't even used all my tokens yet." Disappointed tears began collecting in the corners of the little boys' eyes.

Booth knelt in front of his son.

"I know Buddy. I'm sorry but we really have to get going. I have to get you back to your mom's."

"But…"

"I'll save your tokens for next time okay? Let's go." He stood, ending their conversation before he too started to tear up. He hated disappointing his son more than just about anything.

Grasping Parker's hand Booth headed for the door, feeling Bones behind him. He stopped at the door and waved at Candace, who gave him a half-hearted smile in return.

The car ride back to Rebecca's was quiet, both adults trapped inside their own thoughts while the child in the backseat fought off sleep.

Booth tried to concentrate on driving while a war waged inside him. He knew he had a duty toward his country, he had to follow orders, but his hatred of killing was hard to ignore.

Brennan, on the other hand, was trying to understand why her heart rate had gone up the way it did when Booth touched her along with the puzzle of why he was acting so strange all of a sudden.

Parker started snoring just as Booth pulled up in front of Rebecca's house. Wordlessly, he opened the door and went around back to retrieve his son. Brennan mimicked him, wordlessly getting out and following him to the door.

Rebecca opened it and looked Booth over for a moment. Then she nodded, moved aside and allowed him to carry the sleeping child to his bedroom. Before he rounded the corner out of her sight, Parker lift his head and wave sleepily. She smiled at him.

"Dr. Brennan?" Rebecca waited until the doctor looked at her. "Is Seeley okay?"

Brennan shifted and pushed her hands in her pockets.

"Why do you ask?"

The other woman smiled slightly. "I've known Seeley a long time Dr. Brennan, and in more ways than most people. He's different now than when he picked Parker up earlier. Is everything okay with him?"

Temperance looked back to where Booth had disappeared and bit her lower lip.

"Well Rebecca, my gut is telling me 'no', but I'm rather new at this whole 'follow your instincts' thing…so it might just be indigestion."

Rebecca gave her a strange look and turned when she heard Booth coming back down the stairs.

"Hey, Bones, could I have a minute?" He asked, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck.

Brennan nodded and smiled at Rebecca before returning to the car.

Booth turned to his ex. "Thanks for letting me have him this afternoon."

"You're welcome Seeley." Rebecca studied him closely before continuing, "And take care of yourself okay?"

Booth looked stunned for a moment, and then nodded.

"I will."

**_There you go! If I finish my update for another fic I'm writing at a decent hour, I'll update this one again tonight. _**


	13. A friend in need

_**Praise the Lord and Hallelujah, the alerts are back! To whom it may concern: THANK YOU!!**_

Brennan stared straight ahead at the dashboard but her eyes kept sliding to her left and studying her partner.

Booth's knuckles were white. His driving was erratic and slightly faster than legal. He kept clenching and unclenching his jaw, his breathing labored.

She hated this. She could tell there was something wrong and she couldn't do a damn thing to make him tell her what it was.

"Why did they keep saying 'Good for you Seeley'?"

Brennan was almost as startled by her voice as Booth was. The silence that had descended in the SUV was thick and apparently when Brennan was uncomfortable she said things she hadn't necessarily meant to.

At least it wasn't anything too embarressing this time.

"What are you talking about Bones?" Booth didn't take his eyes off the road, slightly annoyed at his thoughts being suddenly interrupted.

"Well, both Rebecca and that woman at the golf place said 'good for you Seeley', after giving me some sort of look...Why did they do that?"

She looked at him openly now and watched with relief as his face began to soften.

"Let's just say I don't introduce many women to Parker."

Brennan glanced at the backseat where Parker's car seat was, as if she expected to see the curly haired boy flashing his miniature charm smile at her.

"Why did you introduce me to him?"

Booth's heart beat double time against his rib cage.

_Why **did **I introduce her?_

"Because Bones…you're different." He looked at her, her face still betrayed confusion and disbelief. "I just don't think it's a good idea to bring a lot of women in and out of Parker's life, so I only let him get to know people…women…I think will be around for a while."

Brennan dropped her gaze to her lap and thought for a moment. Then bit her lip and looked back at him.

"So, that's why you introduced me to him? You think I'll be in your life for a while?"

Booth glanced at her and was surprised to find her smiling at him, he gave her a lopsided grin in return.

"If the present pattern goes unchanged…yes."

Brennan smiled at her window and watched scenery go by for ten more minutes until Booth pulled up in front of her apartment building.

It was then that the weight she'd felt earlier that afternoon started to lay on her chest, making it hard to breathe.

Booth waited for Brennan to get out, but she didn't.

"Bones, are you okay?" "Booth are you going away again?" They said at the same time.

Booth looked taken aback.

"What do you mean?"

Brennan cleared her throat before continuing.

"Well, after you got that phone call earlier, your demeanor changed. You got distant. I get the feeling your preparing to leave again." She watched for any change in Booth's stony expression, but there was none.

"I can't tell you where I'm going or when I'll be back Bones." He said simply.

Brennan sighed deeply. That's what she'd been afraid of.

"Classified, right?"

Booth nodded slightly. Brennan waited a few seconds, then reached over, laid her hand on top of his and squeezed.

_Come home to me in one piece Seeley._

By the time Booth noticed what she'd done and turned to say something, Brennan was already out of the car and running toward her apartment building.

-------------------------------------

A pretty young artist sat at her computer answering emails and doodling on her desk calendar the next day, completely unaware that her best friend had not only found out what she'd done, she was definitely **not** happy about it.

"Angela!"

She jumped and turned to find a frazzled looking Temperance Brennan standing in the doorway.

"Yes Sweetie?" She said as sweetly as she could. Brennan wasn't buying it.

"Why is it that the security guard and the Biochemist from Research and Cataloging I just talked to have no recollection of a power outage yesterday?"

Brennan tapped her foot impatiently and walked closer to Angela's desk.

"Well…I suppose they just…" Angela searched frantically for an excuse to calm her friend, she hadn't expected her to be **this** mad.

"Don't lie to me Angela." Brennn warned, she folded her arms across her chest and waited.

"Fine." Angela sighed, "I may have stretched the truth a little bit but…"

"Stretched the truth?! Angela, do have any idea how long the Jeffersonian has been waiting for my findings on the frozen mummy from Greenland? How about the analysis of those bones found in Zaire that are expected to be the remnants of an ancient tribal king? Do you even **know** how long it is going to take me to finish the three feet of paperwork on my desk now that I've lost an entire afternoon and evening working on it? Why did you do that Angela?" Brennen was pacing in front of Angela's desk, waving her arms ad raising her voice to levels she wouldn't normally permit in the lab.

Out on the platform Hodgins and Zack looked at each other and winced. They'd tried to warn her, but Angela could be almost as stubborn as their boss sometimes. They hoped she would survive.

Angela stood, walked around her desk and settled on the edge of it.

"Bren, Sweetie, I did it for your own good."

Brennan stopped suddenly and turned on her. "You what?"

Angela sighed. "I know you Bren. You want to be strong and independent and self-sufficient and you think falling in love with someone will take those things away from you."

Brennen opened her mouth, but shut it again when Angela held up a silencing finger, "Bren, those things are not bad. You can be all those things and still be in love…with whomever you chose." She added with a smile, then rose from her seat and walked over to the anthropologist, who'd fallen gracelessly into a chair as she took in Angela's words.

Angela knelt in front of her and took her hands and squeezed them, "Sweetie, once you've made a decision, I know there is nothing you will let stand in your way."

She studied Brennen's blue eyes, and was satisfied to find them open and listening.

"Once you've decided to love Booth, you won't need me anymore. Yesterday was just…me trying to push you in the right direction. Maybe it was too soon or too presumptuous…but that's kind of my style so, I hope you can forgive me Bren."

Brennan fought hard to keep her chin from quivering and pulled Angela into a hug to avoid showing her the tears in her eyes.

"Thanks Ange." She whispered.

-----------------------------------------

Booth pulled his collar up in paranoia and shrugged deeper into his coat. He was following the target at a safe distance, but he was in a densely populated area, better known as downtown LA, and he didn't want to be recognized.

He'd been tracking him for several days and finally had begun to get a feel for the man. Begun to learn his routine, his wants and needs. It was almost time.

Booth was so focused on watching the targets' movements, he almost didn't hear his name being called behind him.

He felt a hand grip his left elbow and turned quickly, ready to throw the person attached to it to the ground.

But before he could, Booth's eyes narrowed in recognition.

"Dan?"

A man about Booth's age, but blonde and heavier gave him a sporting smile.

"It really is you!"

Booth tried to return the smile, but swallowed it as he turned back in the direction his target had gone.

_Dammit Dan. I almost had him._

"Seeley, what are you doing here?" Dan grasped his old friend's elbow and gave him a slight shake. "It's been so long."

Booth's shoulders slumped slightly, but he quickly turned a smile on Dan.

"Too long. Want to get a drink?"

Dan followed Booth into a nearby bar, surprised the bartender already seemed to know his friend, though he got the feeling Booth hadn't been in town long.

The two sat in silence until they'd each downed at least two shots. They spent an hour catching up. How's the family? How's the job? Anyone special in your life? How long are you in town?

Stupid pleasantries neither of them wanted to talk about but had to get out of the way to show they were active participants in a civil society.

Finally Dan downed a sixth shot of Jack, leaned on the bar with one arm in his slightly more relaxed state, and studied Booth.

He was slightly jealous that his friend still managed to look much like they had when they were discharged from the Army. Still in shape, still wearing that playful sparkle in his eyes.

But there was something else too. Booth was hunched over his shot glass, studying the liquid as if it held the answers to all his problems. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days.

"What brings you to LA Seeley?"

Booth looked at him, finding it strange, suddenly, that he hadn't come up with a convincing lie to tell people on the off chance he was asked that question.

"Business." He said finally.

Dan sucked on the inside of his cheek.

"Business huh? What kind of business has the DC branch of the FBI got out here?" Dan pretended to be captivated by his empty glass, but he knew Booth was not in LA on business for the FBI. You didn't spend three months in the desert with someone, waiting, hunting, watching and talking, without learning to read them like a book.

Booth looked at the hefty man to his right and recognized immediately the piercing comprehension in his eyes. He sat up quickly, threw back his shot and got off the barstool.

"It was good to see you Dan." Booth pulled a few bills from his wallet and threw them on the counter. Dan nodded, knowing that was all he would get in the information department.

Booth moved to walk out, but stopped behind Dan's slumped figure and leaned in close to his friend's ear.

"Not one word to anyone."

A quick pat on the shoulder and he disappeared through the crowd and out the door.

_**Ahhhh...I'm so happy about the alerts being back...I might post the next chap tonight...**_


	14. Bad Timing

**_You lucky ducklings, I'm posting the next chap...right about now. _**

The sun started to descend behind the LA horizon and Booth crouched lower behind the small wall to his right. His rifle sat on the ledge, unmoving at his post on the rooftop. He'd been waiting for hours, but he knew it won't be much longer now.

The target would have to walk out of the building eventually. Booth would have to wait until then.

For a few minutes his grip on his sniper rifle loosened and he leaned on the roof's ledge, looking down five stories to the street. He wondered what Bones was doing at that very moment.

It was about four o'clock her time so she was probably at the lab. Probably had her auburn hair pulled back, showing off the beautiful face she refused to admit was exactly that. Beautiful. She would be leaning far over some set of bones, taking notes or talking to Zack. Communicating with the dead in a way no one else could.

Giving them back their identities, their families, and at the same time, they were somehow helping her create her own.

She would go back to her office, shake her hair out of her ponytail and slump into her computer chair. Then she would sit for a minute, Booth closed his eyes imagining the scene he'd watched so many times when she thought he couldn't see her. She would lean her head back on her chair and close those delicate eyes. Breathing deeply, she would smile to herself as she relished in her recent accomplishment. Then she would sit forward, hunch over her paperwork and not look up until someone distracted her or the sudden dimming of the lights in the lab reminded her how late it was.

Booth sighed, when he became aware again of where he was.

_What would Bones say if she knew what I am waiting to do at this very moment? Would she understand? Would she forgive me? Maybe…_

A sudden movement below brought Booth, albeit unwillingly, from his thoughts of Brennen. The door to the target's apartment building swung open.

Booth immediately returned to crouching behind his rifle and staring intently through the scope.

The target's head poked out followed closely by his body. Booth's finger tightened on the trigger and he held his breath to steady himself even more.

It was then that a waist-tall blonde bundle of energy dressed in a pink sundress and pigtails bounded out the door.

Surprised, Booth pulled back from his rifle and saw the little girl pull the target, most likely her father, away from the door and toward a nearby station wagon.

Booth watched as the girl hugged the man tightly, as if he was the most important thing in the world.

_Why didn't I know he had a daughter?_

Booth then saw a woman get out of the station wagon and round the car toward them. Then he understood.

The target and the woman were standoffish to each other. Booth could tell by their body language that they didn't like each other.

_Must've picked her up while I was talking to Dan, now the girl is going home with her mom._

Booth felt his heart go out to the man, he knew how hard it was to have a child you didn't get to see much because of a bad situation with your ex.

_Stop it Major._ Booth snapped at himself and returned to his rifle. _Don't get sympathetic, you have a job to do. Get it done and get the hell out of here._

But he couldn't do it. The girl had gotten into her mother's car and was driving down the street, leaning out the window and waving at him. The target stood on the curb waving back at her. Booth closed his eyes to images of Kosovo that suddenly, and rather inconveniently, assaulted his mind's eye.

_I can't do it again. I can't kill a man in front of his child._

Booth watched as the man disappeared back inside his apartment and the girl and her mother disappeared around the corner.

Now he would have to wait, though it turned out not for very long. Twenty minutes later the man emerged again from his apartment building, carrying a worn out gym bag and Booth knew he was heading to work.

This time, Booth didn't give himself a chance to hesitate. He knelt down, took aim, and fired. The echo of the gunshot was still banging off the surrounding buildings when the target fell to the ground and crimson colored blood stained the concrete around him.

Booth slowly stepped away from the ledge as the screams of terror from neighbors rang out. Some who'd heard the shot were leaning out their bedroom windows to see what had happened, others just rushed out onto the street.

He began packing up his things and slowly began blocking out all the noise and confusion swirling in the streets below him. Finally, all he heard was silence, the sound of his own breathing and his heartbeat in his ears.

Booth stood up and looked to the west, toward the sunset, the way that the little girl and her mother had gone.

"I'm sorry."

His voice was carried away by the breeze and disintegrated into silence.

He knew the little girl would never know who killed her father and she would definitely never know he was 'sorry'.

The sound of a gunshot echoed again in his ears.

Seeley Booth felt a part of him die.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Booth, are you listening to me?" Brennen looked up from her neatly laid out table of Bones and into her partner's face.

She knew he wasn't. He hadn't moved from his spot near the railing, where he was looking out over the lab, in several minutes. He'd been distracted since the moment she picked him up from the airport, this time without Parker.

She was almost glad she'd done that, Parker wouldn't have liked to see his dad in his present condition, so worn out and tired looking. Brennen was concerned about her friend, but was still working on what to do about that.

She'd only very recently come to terms with her intense feelings for Booth and was still not even sure what to do about those, though Angela was doing her best to steer her in the 'right' direction.

The sound of Brennen's voice brought Booth out of his stupor and he straightened and turned to look at her.

"Of course I'm listening Bones." He smiled but when she lowered her glare back to the bones to continue her analyses he allowed his frame to slump a little.

He ran a hand along his stubbly face and rubbed his eyes. Truth be told, he hadn't slept in almost 48 hours. He'd spent twenty-nine of those locating the target again and waiting on the rooftop for him to show. The four hours he'd spent on a red-eye flight back to DC had been used on everything but sleeping, including trying to convince a stubborn flight attendent to give him more drinks than were allowed. After two more hours of debriefing at the warehouse, he'd showered, changed and come directly to the lab.

To say the least, he wasn't at the top of his game.

_But it's only a little while longer. They said it would only be a few more assignments and this will be over._ Booth thought warily.

He became aware of Bones looking at him and refocused his attention on her again.

"I was putting this in lamest terms for your benefit Booth, but I have a feeling you didn't hear a word I said." She crossed her arms and glared at him, she knew she was being too hard on him. She knew what a hard time he was having, but he needed to focus. She could help him later, right now they had a murder victim to identify.

That and she was scared. Scared of the fact that she loved Seeley Booth and there was nothing she could do to change that.

Oh yeah, scared out of her mind.

Booth sighed heavily and rubbed his temples. There was something angry pounding around in his brain and it apparently wanted out.

"No, Bones you're right, I wasn't listening. I was…distracted."

Her gaze softened a little. Not just because he'd said she was right, but because she realized what a rotten friend she was being. She glanced back at her bones, they would just have to wait.

"Booth are you okay?" She rounded the table and came to stand next to him, placing a reassuring hand on his arm.

"Yea. Of course." He shrugged and tried very hard to put a convincing smiled on his face. Unfortunately, it wasn't very convincing, especially not to Brennen's discerning eye.

Before she could press him Angela climbed up to the platform and looked at them.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Booth immidiatly shook his head 'no'.

Brennen didn't look as convinced, but shook her head anyway.

"Okay, well here's the sketch of our guy here." She gestured to the skeleton on the table.

Booth leaned over Brennen's shoulder to see the drawing.

He felt his heart stop and he involuntarily backed away from it. Angela noticed this reaction.

"You alright Booth?" She followed him as he moved closer to the human remains.

Booth shook his head at her question, "Where did you say these bones were sent in from?"

"Ummm…Crater Lake National Park, Booth, you're the one who brought in the file, remember?" Brennen joined the other two at the table and looked at Booth. He was staring at her bones with an intensity she'd never seen before, and she noted his pale complexion with worry.

"Booth…"

"Cause of death?" He interrupted and fought to keep his voice under control.

"It appears to be a gunshot wound to the head. Booth, are you alright?"

Booth felt like he was going to lose his lunch.

"I've got to go Bones. I'll talk to you guys later." Booth made a quick exit, leaving both women looking stunned and wondering whether or not to chase after him.

"Seeley!"

Booth heard Cam's voice behind him and looked longingly at the doors. He was almost there, maybe he could pretend he didn't hear her and just keep moving.

"Seeley I know you hear me. Turn around."

Booth stopped and turned around, his face red with impatience.

"What is it Camille?"

Cam stopped short at the clipped tone of his voice and folded her arms over her chest defensively.

"We need to talk. About us."

Booth rolled his eyes and turned to leave again, "Not now Cam."

Cam just shook her head and moved to stand in front of him.

"Yes now, Seeley."

He clenched his jaw for a moment and glared at her. Can didn't back down, so finally he was forced to.

"What is it?"

"Why haven't I met Parker?" She blurted it out in a clumsy bluntness Booth thought only Bones could manage.

"What?"

Cam unfolded her hands and her gaze wavered. "I just wanted to know because Dr. Brennen has been talking a lot about him lately and it occurred to me that I have never actually met your son."

"Look Cam we'll talk about this later." He turned and continued his journey to the doors.

_Why can't she just take a hint? The bones of someone I killed are laid out on an examination table and she wants to talk relationship stuff?_

Cam looked slightly defeated as she called out after Booth, "I'm leaving Seeley."

Booth stopped and turned back around.

"You're leaving? C'mon Cam I promise we'll talk about this later I just…"

"No. I mean I'm leaving this job. The Jeffersonian. I got a job offer last week from the chairman at the Ciao Museum in Egypt. They want me to work for them so…well I wasn't sure if I was going to take the offer, but you just answered my question. I leave in two days."

"But Cam, I don't want things to end like this." Although he did know he wanted them to end, all his days of thinking about Bones had assured him of that.

"End like what Seeley? We're still friends. I just…it wouldn't make any sense for me to go so far away and to hold onto you while you were here." She reached forward and straightened his tie for the last time. "I know where your heart lies, whether I'm here or on another continent doesn't matter, you will never love me how you love her."

Booth swallowed his pride and watched Cam turn to walk her way while he continued on his.

Once outside, he got in his car and pulled out into traffic, trying to think of everything and nothing at the same time.

He didn't blink, didn't take a breath until he got to the first red stoplight, just a block and a half from the Jeffersonian. Then he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, the sounds of his dad's favorite band, the Beach Boys, filled the SUV and Booth relaxed just a little.

The light turned green and he started to push on the gas.

Maybe it was fatigue. Maybe it was being dumped for a job and a raise. Maybe he was still shook up from seeing the face of a man he wished to erase from memory. Or maybe, just maybe it was because he was thinking of her…couldn't get her off his mind...

Whatever the reason, as Booth pulled his SUV out into the intersection he didn't notice the car full of teenagers to his left. The car that was so full of giggling and laughing, that none of them noticed the light had turned yellow, then red. Booth didn't hear the girls start screaming and the blare of the car horn only barely worked it's way into his consciousness two seconds too late.

He felt a powerful jolt put his seatbelt to the test and heard the sound of steel buckling under the impact.

All went black.

**_Ohhhhh...have I ever mentioned how much I love cliffies?? _**


	15. Not over yet

**_Sorry about the cliffie guys...but I'm afraid it's only the beginning..._**

Hodgins and Zack had joined Angela and Brennan on the platform and were quietly discussing Booth's strange reaction to the skeleton on the table.

"Wait, where did you say Booth went a few weeks ago?" Angela asked, looking as if she was trying to figure out some sort of jigsaw puzzle.

"Oregon, why?" Brennan was still studying Angela's drawing, trying to decide if she recognized the face or not, maybe he was from a case she and Booth had worked together.

"Wait, Crater Lake National Park is in Oregon. These remains are from Crater Lake." Zack said quickly, "Maybe…"

The scientists were interrupted when a security guard came barreling through the doors and calling out Brennan's name.

"Dr. Brennen! Dr. Brennan!" He came to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, heaving for breath.

"What is it Charlie?" Brennan gave the man a warning glare for running in the lab and went back to the picture in her hands.

"Please come with me Dr. Brennen," he gasped, "there's been an accident."

Brennan's eyes dilated and she snapped her head back towards the other man.

"An accident?"

Charlie dropped his head slightly. "Yes Dr. Brennen." Was all he could manage to get out.

Brennan stood frozen, unable to speak or move as her mind raced with posibilities.

_Booth?_ _No, stop jumping to conclusions. It couldn't be. He was just here…_

Angela spoke up, her eyes shifting nervously at Brennan. She knew exactly what thoughts were running through that analytical mind.

"Who Charlie? What happened?"

The security guard finally brought his eyes back to the scientist's.

"A black SUV and another car, Dr. Brennan. It's Agent Booth."

Hodgin's and Angela, who were standing nearest to Brennen, reached out to steady her as her legs turned to jelly and she clung to the examination table for support.

"Booth?" Brennen felt her chest grow tight.

_He was just here. It can't be._

"Sweetie…" Angela started, rubbing her hand over her friend's forearm, concerned about the vacant look in her blue eyes.

She was completely underestimating Brennan's ability to receive bad news, quickly recover from it, and decide on a course of action.

"Maybe you should sit down." Hodgns suggested.

Brennan wriggled out of their grip, regaining feeling in her legs, though she could still feel her knees knocking together, and ran towards Charlie.

"Take me to him." She ordered, beating him out the door and into the street.

Outside Brennan could see flashing lights almost two blocks away and she wondered briefly, as she ran alongside Charlie, how the paramedics had gotten there so quickly. Booth had left the lab not ten minutes ago.

Reading her thoughts, Charlie answered her.

"There was an ambulance driving by when the accident occurred. They stopped to help."

Brennan didn't hear him. She was focusing on remembering to breathe as Booth's large black SUV came into view.

It was turned around, facing the wrong direction, since she knew he'd left the Jeffersonian toward the South on the one-way street. His driver's side door was completely smashed in and about thirty feet away a white SUV had smoke rolling out from under it's crumpled hood.

Charlie was still speaking to her, but she only heard every-few words as she searched the sea of activity for her friend.

"…Booth…they didn't see…blindsided…paramedics are sure…critical…no casualties yet…there he is there."

She heard his last few words, turned to where he was pointing and sprinted off for the ambulance.

"Miss!" One of the paramedics reached out to stop a woman who was running past him toward the truck. He grabbed her arm, not knowing what a fatal mistake he was making, "Miss please you need to stand back."

Brennan, so focused on getting to Booth, didn't even hear the paramedic talking to her. All could see was Booth's pale face being lit intermittently with blue and red flashes. His head held in place with a neck brace and blood. So much blood. His crisp white shirt and perfectly gelled hair were soaked in the crimson liquid and it made her stomach flip-flop.

She felt pressure on her arm and instinctively whirled around, planting a knee firmly in the chest of whomever was trying to keep her from getting to Booth.

The paramedic gasped for air as he fell to his knees.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry." Brennan tore her eyes from Booth for a split second and helped the man to his feet. "I didn't see you. I need to get into that van."

She immediately started off toward Booth again, he was completely inside the back of the ambulance now, they would be shutting the doors momentarily.

"Whoa, Scott, you alright? You going to be able to wait here and care for the others?" One of the other medics saw what the crazy lady had done and called out to his coworker, who simply nodded, still clutching his chest.

Brennan got right up to the doors and started to climb in without so much as a glance at the paramedics.

"Lady you need to get out." The man started to put his hand out to stop her, and then remembering what happened to Scott, thought better of it.

"No! Please! He's my partner I have to go with him." Brennan turned her pleading eyes on the man who was trying to hook an IV up to Booth's arm.

"You're his partner?" The medic connected the IV and studied Brennan for a moment. She was half hoisted up into the van and looked desperate, like her whole life depended on what he said. He maybe could have still turned her down though, if it wasn't for the tears rolling down her face. Tears she wasn't even aware she was shedding.

The medic sighed and quickly motioned her into the van. Brennan obliged and moved to sit right up near Booth's head.

"Oh Seeley." She whispered, mostly to herself. The vehicle jumped to life, red lights flashing in front and behind and the sound of a siren announcing their arrival to all who might stand in the way.

Brennan saw his face contort in pain but knew from the stats flashing on a screen over her shoulder that he was unconscious. She grasped his hand with one of hers and began stroking his forehead with the other, carefully avoiding a large gash the medic was trying to tend to.

The paramedic tending to Booth's head injury eyed the woman suspiciously for a few seconds as she whispered assurances to his patient and tears soaked her skirt.

_Partners huh? Partners my eye._

-----------------------------------------------

Angela burst through the hospital doors, Hodgins and Zack hot on her heels.

"Where are Agent Booth and Dr. Brennen?" She barked at the nurse, her eyes were still frantically searching the hallway for a sign of her best friend.

"Who ma'am?" The nurse popped her gum and looked at Angela with a slightly bored expression. An expression the artist would have rung her neck for if she hadn't just spotted a familiar looking blue lab coat coming out of a bathroom down the hall.

Angela took off running, ignoring the sound of the nurse calling after her and vaguely aware of Jack's voice explaining her actions to the flustered nurse.

"Sweetie? Bren?" Angela took her by the shoulders, dropping both their purses to the floor. "Brennan are you alright?"

She chose to ignore the blood on her friend's hands and wondered desperately if there was anyone behind those unseeing blue eyes.

"Sweetie…are you okay?" Angela waited quietly for a response, giving Brennan's shoulders a slight shake, hoping to get some sort of response.

After what seemed like an eternity Brennan's eyes shifted and connected with Angela's.

"I threw up." She stated.

Angela furrowed her brows and sat them on a bench lining the hall.

"It's okay Bren. He's going to be fine." She still clutched Brennan's left hand with both hers and was staring hard at her face.

Brennan shook her head.

"They wouldn't let me go with him." Her voice was monotone, as if she were delivering facts about a skeleton on one of her tables. "I begged them to…but they wouldn't. He's in surgery."

"Oh, Sweetie." Angela abandoned Brennan's hand and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug.

Brennan continued uninterrupted.

"They said mostly he would be okay. A few broken ribs and bruises from the impact…but…but…" Finally her voice dissolved into sobs, and she crumpled into Angela's embrace.

"Angela, I can't lose him. I won't. He has to live. He has too…" She sobbed into her friend's coat softly, trying to get a grip on the pain she felt throbbing in her whole being. Pain she couldn't ever remember feeling so intensely.

She recognized it, yes, knew the pain of loss all too well. But even when her father and brother left her for the second time, Brennan hadn't felt the wounds cut this deeply.

Jack and Zack had been watching the scene from a distance but finally approached the two women. Zack sat on the other side of his mentor while Jack remained standing, his eyes connecting with Angela's in a sympathetic glance of understanding.

Brennan pulled back, wiping her face furiously.

"The doctor said he'd be out as soon as he could."

Just then, as if he heard himself being discussed, the attending Dr. Howard George, shuffled through the doors at the end of the hall.

All the squints rose to meet him.

"Well?" Brennan was the first to speak, the breakdown of moments before all but forgotten except for the puffy red rings around her eyes and a lingering sniffle.

Dr. George shook his head slowly and Brennen almost died right there.

"I'm sorry Dr. Brennen…He's still in surgery."

Brennan grasped Angela's hand as she felt relief wash over her.

_He's not gone. He's in surgery. Everything will be fine. _

Dr. George was, of course, blissfully unaware at that moment, how much four people wanted to kill him for scaring them like that.

"It will be a few more hours, but we've got the best brain surgeon in the business working on your friend so…"

"Brain surgeon?" Hodgins blurted out, "As in someone is messing around inside his brain?"

"I wouldn't call it messing around mister…" Dr. George began.

"_Dr._ Hodgins and I don't much care what you call it I…"

This time the doctor was the one doing the interrupting.

"Please, I need you all to be patient." He turned to leave and then stopped, "And if he has any family, parents…children…anything like that, you probably want to give them a call, we've got a long night ahead of us."

He disappeared through the doors and Brennan stared after him for a moment.

_Call his family?...That's not good. That means..._

She sank to the floor, unable to complete the thought, and put her heavy head in her hands as tears again began to flow freely.

Brennan felt Angela and the others near her, but was thinking too hard to notice. She was racking her brain, trying to remember why she'd allowed herself to open up to Booth when she knew this would happen...just like it always did.

She knew he would be taken from her.

_Oh yeah…because you love him._ She shook her head, a sad smile on her lips._ Damn you Booth, why would you do that to me?_

_**Ah...but how can you not be in love with him? Am I right? R&R, and remember, I'm okay with one-word reviews from you shy types, just so I know I'm not typing to a wall here...**_


	16. Tiny little pieces

**_Since chapter 15 has only been up for a few hours and I already have 17 reviews, which made me oh-so-happy, I decided to post this tonight...although I don't think it's much help in the suspence department..._**

Brennan paced up and down the sterile hospital hallway, holding tightly to the now lukewarm cup of coffee Zack had gotten her an hour ago. She refused to cry anymore, but every now and then she would close her eyes to make the burning in them subside.

She'd gotten off the phone with Rebecca and Parker half an hour ago, he would be in to visit tomorrow. Mr and Mrs Booth were on their way in from Philadelphia and would be there in a few hours.

Angela was leaning on Hodgins' arm and watching her friend wear a hole in the linoleum floor. Cam was bit her fingernails nervously sitting next to the even more nervous looking Zack. Cam had been in the middle of a meeting with the board of directors when she got the call, but joined the rest of the team at the hospital as soon as the meeting was over.

_It's been an hour and eight minutes_ Brennan thought, as she looked again at the clock. _The doctor said we could see him in an hour. It's been an hour and nine minutes now._

She returned to biting her lip as she looked longingly at the swinging doors.

"Sweetie, they'll be out soon." Angela said soothingly. Brennan looked at her and gave her an unconvincing smile.

"I know. I just…" Brennan words stopped short as the doors swung open and Dr. George waved them through.

"Visiting hours will be over in about forty minutes, but I promised to let you see him so I wanted to make sure I did that."

He halted in front of room 208 and the group of people, led by the frazzled looking Dr. Brennan, stopped and looked at him.

"Thank you Doctor." Brennan reached for the door handle, but Dr. George reached out and stopped her.

"Wait. There's something you need to know." He dropped his gaze slightly, and quietly explained the extent of their friend's injuries.

Brennan's lukewarm cup of coffee hit the hallway floor. She wished it had been a ceramic mug instead of a paper cup, then it would have shattered into a million pieces, just like her heart just had.

**_Short and cruel...I know. But...if we are feeling generous with the reviews...I'll post tomorrow...Oh heck. we all know I'll post tomorrow anyway...but could you just review to humor me? _**


	17. End of disscusion

**_Thank you for all the reviews you guys! I can't actually say it enough, but your feedback is what keeps me going!_**

Brennan moved into Booth's room, her coffee forgotten and her friends ignored. All she saw was Booth.

He was staring out the window, a large bandage wrapped his head, so many tubes and cords hooked up to his chest he almost didn't look like himself. He looked damaged... injured and she hated it. Her heart ached to hold him, to reach out and caress him. But she couldn't. That was what hurt the most.

"Do you know who I am? You call me Bones." Brennan wrapped her arms around herself as she stood next to him. She honestly couldn't believe she just uttered those words.

The thought occurred to her that under other circumstances he would have teased her for being so blunt. He would say, 'way to break it to me easy Bones'.

The smile that threatened her lips died when he turned his head toward her, his brown eyes searching her face in a way she'd never seen before. He wasn't searching to figure out what she was thinking, he was searching to figure out who she was.

Dr. George's words rung in her ears, making her head spin.

_He's sustained a major head trauma during the accident, he's suffering from amnesia, though at this time we're not sure about the extent of it. Even if it's very severe, it's possible it is only temporary. He's also showing signs of exhaustion and heightened blood pressure due to stress. It's possible that this will pass if he gets some rest and time to heal._

"Bones." She said again, almost pleadingly. She waited for his charm smile to pop up on his face. Waited to hear him tell her, 'Of course I know who you are Bones, now get me out of this place…but grab some pudding before we do that'.

It didn't happen though, quite the opposite.

"I…I don't. I'm sorry." Booth dropped his eyes to the bed to avoid the woman's gaze. The doctors had given him the same look earlier when they asked their questions. Most of which he couldn't answer.

"It's okay." Brennan reached out to touch his hand, thought better of it, and placed it next to his. Now was not the time to take her feelings for him out for a test run, especially when it was now apparent that he had no reason to reciprocate.

"How about them?" She fought back the tears, blinking furiously and trying to focus all her energy on Booth's efforts to regain his memory.

Gesturing toward Cam, Zack, Hodgins and Angela gathered around the foot of the bed, she waited.

Slowly, Booth's brown eyes moved from face to face, but there was no 'aha' moment. There was no change. He shook his head and rubbed his face with his hands.

Brennan could see how this was taking a toll on him and knew the doctors wanted him to rest, but they also needed to know how much the head injury had affected him.

"What's the last thing you do remember?" She continued, the anaylitical scientist in her the only thing keeping her from throwing her arms around him and never letting go.

Booth looked at the ceiling and then the floor, his face set in a thoughtful expression Brennen recognized. He used it at crime scenes and at the lab when he was trying to put pieces of the case together, it was usually accompanied by some sort of unfounded conjecture and a chastisement from herself.

"Nothing specific." He said finally. He watched her face fall and hated that he disappointed her. Hated that he couldn't give her the answer she needed to hear, the answer he so desperately wanted to give.

Brennan nodded solemnly and was about to continue with another question when a nurse with big hair and big hips came back into the room.

"Sorry folks, visiting hours are over, our big man here needs some rest." She adjusted the dose of painkillers going into his IV and then fluffed his pillows a bit. He smiled appreciatively at her, but Brennen could see it didn't reach his eyes.

It wasn't a Booth smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow Booth." Brennan said quietly, lingering a moment longer than the others, hoping his eyes would suddenly brighten with acknowledgment. They didn't, so she turned her back and walked out, willing herself not to feel anything anymore.

Booth just nodded and watched as everyone left the room, his eyes caught the woman with the auburn hair one last time. God, she was beautiful. He wondered if he'd ever told her that before.

_Probably. I don't see myself spending too much time with a woman who looks like that and not letting her know it. But then…who knows? He smiled ironically at himself, certainly not me._

Booth thanked the nurse as she left and stared up at the ceiling in the darkened room, unable to find sleep.

Something was missing, he could feel that in his heart, but he couldn't decide what it was. Obviously it had to do with the memories he apparently didn't posses, but he couldn't remember what it was he was forgetting .

He smacked his own forehead and nearly passed out at the pain it caused him.

_Why did I do that?_ He gingerly ran his fingers over the bandage wrapped tightly around his skull.

He couldn't remember ever feeling so frustrated. Of course, he apparently couldn't remember a lot of things.

Then there was that woman. There was something about her. He knew he was supposed to recognize her and the others. He knew he felt he'd lost something very important when he looked at them. But he also knew the woman with the auburn hair, the one she told him he called 'Bones', but everyone else called Dr. Brennen, something about those blue eyes made him feel warm inside.

He suddenly realized what that warm feeling was as the drugs took effect and he drifted to sleep.

He looked into those stormy blue eyes, and he felt like he was home.

---------------------------------

Brennan sat in the deafening silence for hours after she got to her apartment.

She'd dropped her keys and her bags in a clumsy heap on the floor, exhausted physically and emotionally, but mostly irritated because she couldn't stop the running monologue in her head.

_Why does this keep happening? Do I have some sort of curse?_

She started changing her clothes and avoided her gaze in the mirror, her own red puffy eyes disgusted her.

_That's not rational. There are no such things as curses. But…what else could it be?_

She shuffled back out to the kitchen in her pajamas and searched for something to ease her pain in the refrigerator.

_There is nothing rational about the way everyone keeps leaving me. It might as well be a curse. First Dad and Mom, then Dad and Russ, now Booth…_

She decided on double chocolate ice-cream and a cold beer.

_Booth is_ **not**_ gone Temperance. He's not dead._

She fell into her couch, placing the food on her coffee table and searching her ceiling for answers.

_But he doesn't even know who I am! It's not fair. I love him. I love him and I finally acknowledge it and he doesn't even recognize me. Why does this keep happening? Why do I open up just to get torn to pieces?_

Brennan swore she wouldn't cry anymore. She'd sworn it to herself after she scared Parker by crying on the phone with him.

_I should be stronger than this._

That's why she knew those were not tears running down her face, and those couldn't possibly be sobs shaking her body so violently. The blurriness that clouded her vision was from sleep, or hallucinations maybe, but it was not from tears. No, she was having a heart attack, that's why she couldn't seem to get any air, she was definitely **not** crying.

Hours passed. Sleepless hours spent staring at the ceiling in the darkness and not crying.

Temperance's ice-cream melted and her beer got warm, but she didn't move. Couldn't move. Her body was made of lead. She needed him to hold her. The one person that could make everything okay for her was the one person she couldn't reach.

Finally, at some point in the early morning Brennan found an answer written on the ceiling, as Angela's words came back to her.

Once she decided, nothing was going to stop her.

She decided first and foremost that she was not going to go to work the next day.

She decided once and for all that she loved Seeley Booth and she refused to lose him.

And she decided Seeley Booth was going to get his memory back and she would make sure he never forgot her again.

These were facts. These were law. End of discussion.

_**So...you are all so wonderful about reviewing, please keep it up!**_


	18. Truths he'd like to remember

**_Thank you THANK YOU!!! To all you faithful reviewers and to all you who reviewed for the first time. 1) Sorry, I know amnesia is cruel...but it had to be done...I mean...look at the title... 2) All shall be revealed in due time..._**

Booth's eyes fluttered open at ten-thirty the next day and slowly scanned the dimly lit hospital room, events from the day before rolling their way back into his consciousness. He winced at the memories, so many pained expressions directed at him, and nothing he could do to ease the pain. He wished he could believe it would be different today.

His gaze fell on two huddled figures sitting in a chair across the room. It was the woman with the blue eyes.

_Dr. Brennan_ he thought, pleased that he remembered her name from yesterday.

_At least I remembered_ something

On Dr. Brennan's lap there was a child with a mop of curly blonde hair, straddling her legs and whispering to her conspiratorially. Booth remained still and strained to hear the conversation, much to no avail.

"Did you bring what I asked for Parker?" Brennan spoke in a hushed tone, trying not to wake the sleeping patient a few feet away.

Parker nodded vigorously and leaned over to get something from his bag. He handed her the framed picture from his bedroom.

"Daddy's favorite pi'ture of me and him." He pointed at it, though Brennan already recognized the photo's subjects.

She simply nodded, delicately tracing their happy faces with her forefinger. Booth had Parker on his shoulders, holding the boys' hands out to the sides and they wore identical grins. She smiled.

"Elmo?" Parker whispered.

Brennan looked up at him, "Yes?"

"Is my Daddy gonna be okay?" His chin quivered ever so slightly as he glanced toward his father. The big bandage wrapped around his head scared him. All the machines scared him. Parker wasn't used to feeling scared when his father was around, that scared him more than anything.

Brennan set the picture aside for a moment and took Parker by the shoulders.

"Parker. Listen to me." She waited, the boy's wide-eyed expression told her she had his undivided attention, "Your dad…he's not feeling well."

"Does he have a cold?"

"No. He has…he hit his head. He forgot some things. He might not recognize you or me, or a lot of other people, but he's going to be okay. We're going to help him." She smiled at him and Parker nodded, still not fully comprehending, but felt comforted by her confidence. Feigned though it was.

Booth shifted in his bed and she looked up. His eyes were wide open, studying them.

"Is that your son?" He asked. It seemed like a natural conclusion, by how familiar and natural she was with him.

Brennan's eyes widened in horror. She knew it was a possibility but…never considered it. Never considered Booth would have forgotten his own son.

"N-no…" She stuttered. Parker cut in.

"No Daddy! Elmo is watching me while Mommy went for coffee." Parker grabbed the picture and scooted off Brennan's lap. He quickly climbed up onto his father's bed, Brennan still too shocked to try and stop him.

Booth looked at the boy, who now sat quite comfortably on his lap.

_Did he just say Daddy?_

As if to confirm his suspicion, Parker began speaking.

"Daddy, Elmo says you hit your head." He spoke in all seriousness, trying to decipher the weird looks his father was giving him.

Booth nodded.

"She says you forgot stuff." The boy picked up the picture from his side and thrust it into Booth's face, who took it from him slowly.

"I don't want you to forget me, Daddy." He finished and gave Booth a long look. Brown eyed gaze met brown eyed gaze, confusion on both sides. Finally Parker turned and scurried off the bed and went to the door, where an uncomfortable looking Rebecca had suddenly appeared, unnoticed by both Booth and Brennn. Parker took his mother's hand and waved to his father.

"Bye, love you." Then the small child disappeared down the hallway.

the exchange had given Brennan time to regain her composure and she walked toward the bed.

Booth looked up at her, she was shaken to see so much pain and hopelessness in his brown eyes.

"I can't remember my own son." He said quietly.

She reached a hand out and laid it on his arm.

"You will." She was equally quiet, though using all the voice she could muster.

"Seeley?!" A shriek rang out from the doorway.

They both looked up as a frazzled looking woman in her sixties rushed into the room followed closely by a tall, gray haired man.

Brennan stepped away from the bed to make room, knowing full well who they were without having ever met them before. The man was a spitting image of her partner.

"Oh, Seeley." Laura Booth was immediately at her son's side, wrapping him in an embrace. Her son, her baby boy, he was hurt and she just wanted to hold him, make sure he was okay.

But when she felt him stiffen, she pulled back, tears running down her face.

"What is it sweetheart? What's the matter?"

Booth looked up at the older woman, and found nothing to recognize in her face. More faces he didn't know and should have. He drew his eyes over to Dr. Brennn, pleading with her to help him.

Brennan saw the confusion and torment warring in his eyes and felt her heart drop. He didn't recognize his parents.

Michael Booth had joined his wife at his son's side and was silently taking inventory of the younger man's injuries. In the army he'd learned to assess a situation first, take action second and panic later. As far as he could tell, Seeley was mostly okay, except for the large black and purple bruise on his left side, most likely caused by cracked ribs. That and the white bandage wrapped around his head.

Then his eyes drifted to the woman on the other side of the bed. She seemed to be trying to melt into the shadows of the room, who was she?

"Ummm, Mr. And Mrs. Booth, could I speak with you outside?" The woman asked.

Brennan suprised herself with the strength of her voice and threw her shoulders back, hoping to summon more courage for what she was about to do.

Laura noticed Brennan for the first time and glanced at her. Then, looking back at her son and seeing the same confused look on his face he'd worn before, she nodded and moved to follow Brennan to the door, her husband guiding her by the small of her back.

Brennan pulled Booth's door shut and faced the older couple.

"Are you our son's doctor?" Laura asked anxiously.

Brennen shook her head. "No. I'm his partner Temperance Brennen."

The couple looked confused for a moment, then Michael's face lit up.

"Bones? He calls you Bones?"

Brennan's eyes stung with tears and she blinked them back furiously.

"He used to." She whispered, wrapping her arms tighter around her middle, trying to protect herself from the pain that seemed to be surrounding her all of a sudden. Closing her eyes momentarily, Brennan pushed down the urge to run.

_I won't do it. Not this time._

"What do you mean 'used to'?" Laura stepped closer to Brennan and put a hand on her shoulder. Her maternal instincts making her simultaneously want to provide comfort and get information from the .obviously distraught young woman.

_Bones. What I would give to hear him call me that again. A nickname I used to hate, but now, I can't stand the thought of him never saying it again…_

Brennan shook the turmoil out of her head and looked up.

"The doctors didn't tell you anything?"

Michael shook his head. "We just got here. We haven't spoken to any doctors, jsut the nurse who showed us the way up here."

Brennan nodded slowly and took a quick glance around, hoping to see Booth's doctor so she wouldn't have to be the one to break the news to his parents.

All she found was a glaringly sterile white hallway and far off echoes bouncing off the walls.

She turned her attention back to Booth's parents.

"Booth was…in a car accident, you know that right?" Silent nods responded to her and she continued. "Well, mostly he's okay. Bangs and bruises by and large but…" Suddenly her voice got tight and she stopped to hold back the tears.

"But what?" Michael urged.

Brennan swallowed hard.

"Well, he was in surgery for quite a while. He has, um, head trauma."

Laura closed her eyes, she knew that wasn't all of it. She groped around blindly for her husband's hand and found it searching for hers as well. She opened her eyes and squeezed his fingers tightly.

"He, um...he has...amnesia." Brennan's words were barely audible, but she saw that both people clearly understood her.

Michael pulled his wife to his chest as she dissolved into sobs, the day's stress and her son's diagnoses finally taking it's toll. Brennan connected with Michael's eyes as he kissed his wife's hair and mumbled to her softly.

He too was close to tears, but his need to protect his wife and be strong for her outweighed his need to grieve and he silently granted permission to 'Bones' to reenter the room.

Brennan closed the door behind her and walked to Booth. He was staring at the door, having heard the sobs that rang out in the empty air.

He looked up at her and she tried to smile, feeling like he was a stranger and a friend all at once.

"I hate this." He said finally, pain and anger clear in his voice.

Brennen nodded. "I know."

He looked at her again and saw the empathy in her eyes. He was sure she really did know, maybe better than anyone else.

Acting purely on impulse he reached out and grasped her hand, his need for physical contact pushing aside any awkwardness he felt at being so intimate with someone he barely knew.

Brennan was surprised at the gesture and quickly pulled her hand from his, wrapping it back around herself.

Booth's gaze faltered and he turned away.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

Brennen's mouth gaped with words she couldn't find. She knew how badly he needed her, but she was terrified. She'd come so close to losing him.

She **had** essentially lost him. Comforting him now would only serve to make her desire more something she couldn't have.

Brennan studied his profile for a moment as he stared out the window again.

_Stop being so selfish Temperance! Booth is what is important right now._

She looked past him and saw that he'd stood the picture of him and Parker on the table next to the bed.

_He must be terrified. I can't just leave him like this._

She sighed and sat in the chair next to him, reaching out to grasp his hand and interlacing her fingers with his.

_We're dealing with Booth right now. We'll deal with my issues later._

"Don't be sorry Booth." She gave him a tight smile, "I'm not going anywhere."

Booth smiled back at her.

"Thank you." Then, he frowned slightly. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Anything."

"Will you…will you please tell me who you are? I feel like…you're special? Somehow. It's killing me to look at you and not know why."

Brennan sucked in her breath, but somehow found the energy for a smile and reassuring squeeze.

"Of course I will."

She nodded. "I'm you're friend. I work at the Jeffersonian Institute, I'm a forensic anthropologist. I sometimes help with cases for the FBI, which is where I met you…"

**_I'm sure there's some d_****_iscrepancies_** **_here as to the inner workings of hospitals, like, Booth's parents would probably already know what's wrong with him before seeing him, but this way worked better for the story, so I hope you'll forgive any i_****_naccuracies_** ****

**_You guys have been unreal in all you're reviews, it's absolutly fabulous! please, don't stop:)_**


	19. Are you in love with my son?

_**Major 'Awwwwww' warning for this chap, maybe even a tissue warning for those of you who tear up easily. Happy reading...**_

Hours passed like days in the hospital, but somehow three weeks had managed to crawl by.

Three weeks and still very little improvement in Booth's condition. Though he remembered everything since he'd woken up from surgery, all he knew of his past life were sporadic faces and incomplete scenes that played out while he slept.

It was because of these dreams that Brennan had taken to spending the night in the hospital, not wanting him to be alone. She curled up in a chair in the corner with her lap top or a file from the lab and watched over him at night, hoping he wouldn't suddenly open his eyes and see her.

Angela came everyday like clockwork, bringing Booth gossip from the lab and even bits and peices of things she heard from friends at the FBI, all the while flirting shamelessly. She also felt obliged to bring in different pieces of art and dozens of flowers because she decided "no one could possibly heal in a room as depressing as this".

Zach stopped by everyday at lunch with Dr. Brennan, but never said much. He often felt uncomfortable, afraid he would say something wrong since he was all too aware of the seriousness of cranial trauma.

Cam came by one last time before relocating to Egypt, but didn't get much response from Booth, who was confused about why the woman seemed so intent on bidding him farewell when he clearly had no idea who she was. She left after only a few minutes.

Hodgins was the only person who saw a bright side to Booth's amnesia, that being Booth wasn't nearly as protective of his pudding. He silently hoped though, every time he swiped one of the plastic cups off the tray, that Booth would look up at him and glare the way he used to. He might never admit it out loud, but he missed the guy terribly.

There was one person who was loyally by Booth's bedside everyday, only leaving the room to go to the bathroom or talk to doctors, afraid she wouldn't be there when Booth's memory finally returned. Despite cautions from the doctors, she refused to believe anything other than that would happen.

Laura Booth sat crocheting by his side all day long, often talking to him about his childhood or his family, hoping to jog his memory. Booth pretended to be engrossed in the TV, but in reality was in deep concentration over every word his mother said, hoping something would eventually sound familiar.

Booth's father spent a lot of time talking to his son while he slept, never having been one to publicly display emotion very easily.

And that was how the three weeks passed, everyone trying to make the best of a bad situation and help a friend in need. But only one person noticed when Brennan's late night visits suddenly stopped. And that person was relived to hear the anthropologist sneaking into her son's hospital room late one Tuesday night.

She'd just left the lab and was dead tired as she made her way toward her chair in the corner near Booth's bed.

"Haven't seen you in a few days."

The voice almost made her jump clear out of her skin and she whirled around to find Laura stepping out of the shadows, smiling at her.

"Oh, Hi Mrs. Booth." Brennan tried to catch up with her breath.

"Call me Laura." She sat down next to Brennan's chair, motioning for her to do the same.

"I haven't seen you in a while." She repeated.

Brennan sat down slowly and nodded, feeling guilt start to creep into the pit of her stomach.

"I've, um, been busy. Had to eat lunch at work." It was true, she had been busy, but she also hadn't eaten more than a bagel and a cup of coffee in two days.

_Booth would be pissed if he knew that...well...my Booth would be._

"That's not what I meant dear. I meant, you haven't come in at night for three days now."

Brennan tilted her head.

"How did you know about that?"

Laura shrugged. "I couldn't sleep one night so I came to see him, and you were here," she patted the armrest of Brennan's chair, "Asleep. I'd been so worried about him being here alone, knowing you were here helped a little." She frowned, "Come to think of it, how is it you were allowed to stay overnight?"

Brennan looked away, "I can be very persuasive."

_When scientific terms and threatening bodily injury fails, tears are hard to resist, even if they aren't intentional._

"Yeah, I believe Seeley mentioned that," Her face brightened momentarily with amusment, but quickly went serious again.

"So what happened?"

Brennan's gaze had fallen on Booth. He looked so peaceful when he slept, almost like an angel. She took another deep breath of the clean hospital air.

She felt Laura's hand lay on her shoulder and she smiled.

"Why does it feel like it's okay to tell you everything?" She questioned, though she resented the way her voice cracked when she did so.

Laura smiled knowingly.

"Because I'm a mother Sweatheart, we listen. It's what we do."

Brennan nodded, clasping her hands tighter so they wouldn't shake. In the past few weeks, she truly had started to feel like Laura was something of a mother to her.

It was part of the reason she tried to run.

"I got scared." She sad finally.

"Of what?"

Brennan took a deep breath, swallowing threatening sobs.

"Of family. Of losing you and Michael, losing him." she gestured widly between Booth and his mother. "All the family I've ever had has left me. You come, and you're…everything a mother should be. I was starting to get attached."

She held her gaze on the immaculate hospital floor.

"And as for Booth…I know he's not dead but…what if he never gets his memory back? What if…what if he…I mean, I finally figured out what I want…and I can't even tell him…because he doesn't know who I am."

Laura squeezed her shoulder, which caused Brennan's tough front to almost completely dissolve and she had to close her eyes to stop the tears.

"What if this is all there is? What if I've lost him forever?" She whispered.

Laura suddenly realized what her husband had been suspecting for weeks. Longer even, ever since Seeley's phone calls had become no more than excited tales of 'Bones did this' and 'Bones said that'.

"Temperance," she said softly, "are you in love with my son?"

Brennan caught her breath and bit her lip. Neither woman spoke for an eternity.

Finally, she was able to bring her eyes to Laura's, but still spoke no higher than a whisper.

"Most people push me to be a better scientist. A better writer or anthropologist. Booth…Booth pushes me to be a better person. He sees my flaws, accepts them, and tries to help me get past them without loving me any less."

Laura leaned forward to hear her better over the soft patter of rain outside.

"When he isn't around, I feel like part of me is missing." Brennan's heart beat in her throat making both breathing and speaking quite difficult.

"When he's near me, I feel safe. If I'm sad, he's there to comfort me. If I'm happy," she shrugged, a smile in her eyes, "he's the reason."

"He would do anything for me, and I for him." she began nodding slowly, "So yes…I love your son."

Brennan held her breath, but it didn't help. She'd never said those words out loud before and she could feel her chest tighten with sobs.

"I love him. I love him." She repeated softly her voice shaking noticably, her control all but lost. Laura pulled her into a hug.

"Oh sweetheart." Laura rubbed her back as Brennan clutched her cable-knit sweater for dear life. The smell of lavender and talcum powder that lingered on her clothes reminded Brennan of the way her mother smelt when she would comfort her as a child. One of the best smells in the world.

"Bones."

Brennan gasped and closed her eyes, sure her mind was now playing tricks on her.

"Bones, please don't cry."

Brennan opened her eyes. She was definitely not dreaming.

She looked over at Booth, who's head was turned, facing her, looking exhausted.

"Seeley!" Laura said a little louder than she should have before she abandoned the hug she'd been giving Brennan and went to her son.

"Hi mom." He said softly, wrapping his arms around his mother's shaking frame. He spoke to her gently, but couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from Brennan. She stood, her hands folded across her chest as her glistening eyes took stock of him.

_Booth? Could it really be you?_

As if he read her thoughts, he gave her a charm smile, a weak one, but a charm smile none the less.

She smiled back at him and started to move for the door.

"I'll go find Michael."

Booth's smile immediately faded.

"No. Don't go."

Brennan looked at his mother, who'd pulled back and was grasping Booth's hand with one of hers, while smoothing his hair with the other, a dreamy smile all over her face.

"But Booth…"

"No. It's okay," Laura piped up, "I'll go find him. You stay with Seeley."

With that, she leaned over, placed a kiss on her son's forehead and practically ran out the door.

The room fell silent and neither person dared move.

Booth knew exactly what she'd said to his mother, but now couldn't seem to find the words to say he felt the exact same way.

He motioned for her to come closer. She hesitated, but found herself next to his bed within seconds.

"You're back?" She asked quietly, her eyes not willing to meet his.

Booth reached up and guided her face to his with his hand. "Yes. I'm right here Bones."

The relief she'd fought off since first hearing his voice a few seconds before suddenly washed over her and Brennan smiled genuinely for the first time.

"Say it again."

"I'm right here." He quickly obliged, her smile sending surges of energy through his body.

She shook her head. "My name…say my name."

"Temperance…"

Again she shook her head and a boyish grin spread across Booth's face.

"Bones?"

Brennan closed her eyes and sighed, relishing in the sound of that word rolling off his tongue.

"I thought I'd never hear that again."

Booth reached for her hand. "Bones I…"

She withdrew her hand from his and leaned over, placing both her hands on either side of his face, she kissed him deeply.

Not a 'moment of weakness' kiss. Not a 'natural reaction to a sudden ouburst of emotions' kiss. Nothing Brennan's rational mind was trying to tell her made any sense right then.

No. She was kissing him because it was what she'd wanted to do for three weeks. For two months. For as long as she'd known him...and she was no longer willing to wait.

Booth put his hands on her waist and pulled her down on to the bed next to him so he wouldn't have to reach so far to her lips.

Brennan pulled away slightly, resting her head on his neck and allowing tears of relief to fall down her face.

"I missed you." She whispered, pulling her arms down and wrapping them around him tightly.

Booth nodded, holding one hand on the base of her head and the other on her back.

"I know Bones. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

She heard the tears in his voice and looked up at him. Smiling, she brushed his wet cheeks.

"Don't cry, it's time to be happy."

"That goes for you too then. Be happy." Booth brushed his thumb along her cheek and let it linger there, tucking some unkempt hair behind her ear.

Brennan laid her head back down on his shoulder and smiled.

"Okay Booth. If you're back, I'm happy."

By the time Laura returned with her husband, Brennan and Booth were fast asleep. His arm wrapped protectively around her waist, her body pressed up against him as if she couldn't get close enough. A smile playing softly on both their lips.

"See." Michael Booth put a hand around his wife's shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. "I told you so."

**_There you go...tell me what you thought..._**


	20. Gone, but not forgotten

**_Glad everyone enjoyed the fluff from last chapter, I certainly did. lol. _**

"Booth! Stop arguing." Brennan hid her smile by bending over and collecting his bag of pictures and clothes.

Booth sat cradling one arm protectively over his sore ribs, legs swinging over the edge of the hospital bed.

"But I always drive!" He whined, the nurse poking and prodding him as she made her final exam.

"Sorry Mr. Booth, but you're not fit to drive so recent after a head injury. Not to mention all the pain killers you're on." She muttered while concentrating on taking his blood pressure.

Booth just rolled his eyes and chose to ignore the smug smile on Brennan's face.

The nurse finished up and soon found that trying to convince the headstrong FBI agent to take a seat in a wheelchair was a long walk up a down-ward escalator and she let it go. Shaking her head as he sauntered out of the hospital room after his girlfriend.

Booth's right hand sought out Brennan's left in the elevator and he saw her smile in his peripheral vision. He also found his self control considerably depleted after his extended stay in the hospital and without thinking, Booth tugged her toward him as they passed the sixth floor.

She was caught off guard and fell clumsily into his arms. Fifth floor.

"What are you laughing at?" He grinned. Fourth floor.

"Nothing." Her face was inches from his. Third floor.

"Oh really?" He smiled and pressed his lips to hers gently, surges of electricity emanating from his lips coursed through his body. Second floor.

Brennen responded immediately, dropping his bag and wrapping her arms around his neck.

First floor. The doors dinged and opened, revealing a mostly empty hallway, except for a blonde woman, clutching the hand of an equally blonde, grimacing four-year-old who stood next to a bouncing brunette.

"**Brennan**!!" Angela squealed and clapped her hands, the grin on her face painfully big.

Booth and Brennean jumped apart, blushing deeply.

"Daddy, cooties!" Parker covered his face with his hands and shook his head disapprovingly.

Booth looked at his son for a second before leaving the elevator in as close to a run as he could manage with his sore muscles.

Parker looked up and jumped into his father's arms, who bit back a cry of pain as his child unknowingly kicked him in his damaged ribs.

Brennan noticed this and quickly grabbed Parker from Booth and set him on a nearby countertop.

Booth glanced at her thankfully and turned to his son, who was wearing an uncharacteristically worried expression.

"What is it buddy?" Booth touched his son's hair and tilted his head to the side to meet Parker's gaze.

They brimmed with tears.

"I thought you're memory got losted." He looked up at his father, trust and faith personified in his face.

Booth's eyes flickered with pain and he pulled his son into a hug.

"Oh, Parker." He closed his eyes and felt Brennan's reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Buddy, I'm fine. Okay? Daddy's all better now."

Booth rocked him slowly and Parker held togiht to his father's neck.

"Promise?"

Booth pulled back and looked at him. "Parker. I'm sorry I scared you, but I promise I could never forget you."

It was true, Parker's face had been one of the most prominent figures in Booth's hazy, yet consistent dreams.

Parker nodded and Booth kissed him on the forehead.

"I love you Daddy."

"Love you too son."

Rebecca smiled warmly at Booth as she pulled Parker off the counter.

"C'mon Buddy, you have a haircut appointment." Parker nodded, but wiggled out of his mother's grip long enough to wrap himself tightly around Brennan's legs.

"I love you too Elmo. Take care of Daddy okay?"

Brennan knelt down and hugged him. "I'll take good care of him Parker, I promise."

--------------------------------------

Brennan dashed into Wong Fu's and found that, somehow, Sid already had food boxed up and waiting for her.

"How'd you know?" She asked as she gathered the bags into her arms.

Sid just smiled knowingly and waved her goodbye returning to the kitchen.

Brennan shook her head as she climbed back into Booth's SUV. He looked at her with tired eyes, exhaustion taking it's toll.

"What are you smiling at?"

She shrugged, "Sid's just weird. That's all." Then, glancing at Booth, concern took away her brightness.

"Are you okay?" She reached for his hand and he squeezed it.

"I'm fine. Just tired." He half lied. He was tired, but he was also dreading getting to his mail when he got back to his apartment. Regaining his memory meant a lot of things, being able to recognize the faces of friends and family first and foremost. But with that he got back the memory of a certain General and an unwelcome heaviness was felt again in his heart.

Three weeks had passed, surly he'd gotten a new assignment since then.

_But maybe not. Maybe the General somehow knows about my accident…_

"Booth?" Brennan pulled him from his thoughts and he blinked at her, "I said we're here."

He nodded and fumbled with his door handle. The pain meds were really kicking in as he slowly made his way up the steps to his apartment, feeling groggier by the moment.

Brennan noticed his drowsiness as he leaned against the wall in the hallway and she searched her key ring for her spare key.

"They said those meds might make you go to sleep." She pushed the door open and flicked on the light.

"Yeah." Booth agreed, immediately going to the pile of mail behind the door that had been slipped through his mail slot over the past three weeks.

All he found were bills and junk mail, and Booth breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why don't you head to bed? I'll cook something for when you wake up later." Brennan started to walk past him into the kitchen but he caught her elbow, pulling her toward him.

"Booth…"

She shut up when Booth's mouth crashed into hers. She melted in his arms, Booth's relief at not finding the dreaded envelope gave him a second wind, all traces of drowsiness forgotten for the moment. All he could think, feel, were her lips against his.

The two pulled back and gasped for air. Brennan was the first to speak as Booth relazed his grrip on her waist.

"Why did you do that?" She wiped the corners of her mouth, the wide smile making that action slightly difficult.

Booth just smiled dreamily.

"Because I can."

Brennan smiled in return, then her eyes widened.

"I just got an idea for my book." She patted her pockets and pulled out a receipt. "I need a pen."

Booth got a cocky grin on his face as he reached for a pen on the table, "My kissing you reminds you of your book? I told you Andy was based on me."

Brennan glared at him, then jotted a quick note on the back of the receipt.

Booth studied her in admiration, taking in the focused crease on her forehead as she concentrated, the nearly unreadable scrawl of her handwriting and the way a small clump of hair never stayed behind her ear no matter how often she pushed it back.

He'd reached out to correct the rebellious lock when Brennan suddenly stood straight and handed him back the pen.

"Thanks Booth I…" She stopped, he was staring at the pen with a confused look on his face.

"Booth?"

_Fulton Creek Bank…That's not right._

He furrowed his brow, unaware of Brennen calling his name.

_Mills Inn. That's what this pen should say, I took it from that crummy motel. I remember…I dropped it here when I got back from Oregon…then I…_

"Booth?" Brennan said again, confused by his sudden change in mood. He looked up at her, as if seeing her for the first time, opened his mouth to say something and then shut it.

He turned and walked quickly down the hall.

"Booth what's going on? Are you alright?" She followed him to his office and found him hunting through some drawers in his desk. Producing a key from the top left one, he walked over to the filing cabinet in the corner, still ignoring her calling his name.

Booth's hands shook as he placed the key in the lock.

_Stop it Seeley! You're getting excited over nothing. You probably misplaced the other pen._

He wanted to believe that, but somehow couldn't bring himself to do so. He didn't often misplace things.

Brennan felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and answered it, keeping a watchful eye on Booth as he rummaged frantically through the filing cabinet.

"Brennan."

"Dr. Brennen, this is Zack. Umm…I needed to ask you…" Zack fumbled.

"What is it Zack?"

"Well…you remember the remains of Isaiah Patrickson?"

Brennan frowned. "Not specifically Zack, I don't use their names."

"Sorry, the remains that were sent to us from Crater Lake National Park? The ones from the day…"

"Yes Zack, I know which remains you're talking about." Brennan cut him off, not wanting to remember the actual circumstances of her last examination of those remains. She glanced again at Booth.

"Well…did you…move them?"

Brennen blinked.

"No Zack. Why would I move them?"

"Well…it's just that…they're not…well, what I mean is that…there are different remains in the box assigned to those bones." Zack winced, waiting for his former boss and mentor to blow up in his ear.

Booth slammed the heavy file drawer shut, the exertion causing his sore ribs to protest, and he resisted the urge to throw a nearby bookend through the window.

They were gone. The files. All his papers, photos and records from his classified missions in the last two months. Gone.

Booth closed his eyes to try and clear his mind a little and think, but Brennan's voice was making it difficult. He took note of the hint of annoyance and alarm in it and turned toward her.

"What do you mean they're not the same bones Zack?"

"I was going to take another look at the remains for my report, Dr. Brennan but when I pulled them out, I realized they weren't the right bones. The remains of Isaiah Patrickson were killed by a gunshot wound to the parietal bone, these remains have no discernable cause of death, no identifying markers. It's not the same body." Zack said in one breath.

Booth stood directly in front of Brennan now, she looked up at him, anger and confusion warring in her eyes.

"Alright Zack, listen to me. Talk to the other lab techs, see if anyone had any reason to move those bones. If not, get Angela to help you look at the security footage and call me if you find anything." She shut her phone and returned it to her pocket before the urge to throw it became unbearable.

"What happened?"

"Someone stole my bones!" She pursed her lips and crossed her arms. "That was Zack. He said a set of bones was taken and replaced with a different set. Someone stole my bones."

Booth narrowed his eyes, his stomach filling with the old familiar knot often accompanied by one of his famous 'gut instincts'.

"The bones from Oregon?"

This time Brennen's eyes narrowed.

"How'd you know that?"

Booth licked his dry lips and looked at his filing cabinet, then at the pen, clutched tightly in his fist. He closed his eyes.

_This is not happening. This is definitely_ not _happening._

_**Oh boy...now the trouble starts...**_


	21. Delusional

_**As usual, HUGE thanks to all my reviewers, my life would be incomplete without you. Here we go...**_

Brennan watched Booth's face get dark and forgot, momentarily, her missing bones. She recognized that look, for the past two months that look had taken up residence behind Booth's eyes. She did not like that look.

"Booth?" She reached out to touch his arm and he moved away, walking towards the door.

"He's not going to find them." He bent over to put his shoes back on, and the rush of blood to his head made him dizzy.

Brennan rushed to his side and pulled him down into a chair before he fell on the floor.

"Who's not going to find what Booth?" She studied him carefully.

Booth sat cupping his head, eyes screwed shut, but still talking.

"The bones. Zack isn't going to find the bones. I need to go check on something. I've got to go…"

"Go where Booth? You need to be lying down."

Booth started to shake his head, then thought better of it.

"No, I can't." He stood, ignoring his light-headedness and finished putting on his shoes.

Brennan wanted to protest, but judging by the look on his face, it would be useless. So, she decided to simply make sure he didn't die on his way to wherever he was going.

He reached for the keys Brenan had set on the table by the door, but she beat him to it.

"You can barely stand, you really think I would let you drive anywhere?"

He glared at her, and she glared right back.

"Wherever you need to go, I'm coming." She stated, leaving no room for argument.

Booth held her gaze a moment longer before drooping his shoulders and sighing.

"Fine."

She followed him out the door and down the stairs and started to help him into the car, an action made difficult by his recent injuries, but stopped when he pulled his arm out of her grip.

"I can do it Temperance." He told her sternly.

Brennan quickly disguised a look of hurt when he snapped at her and simply nodded going over to her side of the car. He didn't mean to seem irritated, she knew, he just wanted to do it himself.

_I can't fault him for that. He's not used to needing people's help._

Still, a feeling of rejection was creeping into her stomach. She made thoughts of pushing him away go to the back of her mind.

_He is not pulling away from me. He will tell me what's going on. He's just in a bad mood. He won't leave me. We're going to be fine._

The panic in her chest died down a little as she repeated her little mantra in her mind.She couldn't believe how vulnerable she felt in this new form of relationship with Booth. Hated how much she truly depended on him, but knew it was too late to change it...even if she'd wanted to.

Brennan was so lost in her own thoughts she didn't notice Michael and Laura approaching the SUV from their rental car parked behind them in front of Booth's apartment.

"Seeley!"

Booth turned around as much as he could stand and saw his parents approaching out of the corner of his eye.

"Hi dad." Booth mustered some sort of smile, giving his father a nod and his mother a quick kiss on the cheek through the open window.

Booth's mother eyed him nervously.

"Seeley where are you going? You should be in bed." She touched his bandage gingerly, he immediately pulled away, his head beginning to throb.

"Uh…" He looked at Brennan, "We um, have to…"

"He has a physio appointment at the hospital later this week and they want to give him a checkup beforehand." Brennan said quickly, turning on the car. "He'll be back later, make yourselves at home."

She gave a quick wave and pulled away from the curb in Booth's big black SUV.

_Oh God. I just lied to his mother! I'm already a horrible daughter._

"Um, thanks. God knows my mother would have drug me out of this car in a heartbeat given the chance." Booth muttered, oblivious to the self-depreciating monologue running in Brennan's head.

Brennan just stared straight ahead at the road.

"Where are we going?" She asked sharply.

Booth looked at her, wondering where the coldness of her mood had come from.

"3453 West Heere St. It's downtown."

"I know where it is Booth. I do live here you know." Brennen tapped her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel while an old lady in a Cadillac drove six miles under the speed limit.

"Hey, Bones." Booth touched her arm and she glanced at him, but quickly drew her eyes away, afraid of what he might see in them.

"Bones," Booth insisted. "Look, I'm sorry if it seemed like I snapped at you back there." Still there was no change in her expression.

"Hey, talk to me. What's wrong?"

She could feel his brown eyes burning into her skin, she licked her lips, flipping her hair off her forehead.

"You."

"Me?"

"Yes. You. You should be at home, sleeping. You were in a car accident for crying out loud." Her tone just as clipped as before.

Booth looked away and Brennan took a deep breath to keep from screaming at him. The man she loved was in pain and she couldn't help him. That's what was wrong.

"Something is wrong and you're not telling me what it is. I just lied to your parents and …You were in Oregon. My missing bones are from Oregon. Don't tell me it's a coincidence."

"It's not a coincidence. It's classified." Booth shot her a meaningful look and then turned to look out the window as they turned the corner.

Booth felt his heart stop.

"Booth?" Brennan pulled to a stop in front of a barbed wire gate. She didn't see anything extraordinary, certainly nothing to make Booth act the way he had back at the apartment. Like it was a matter of life and death for him to come here.

Booth struggled to get his seatbelt and car door open at the same time. His heart had jumped back to life and was beating double time as he rushed out of the car, ignoring the pain in his side and pushed through the gate, as if being inside it would change the condition of the warehouse. Or what was left of it at any rate.

His eyes scanned the lot carefully, but all was exactly the same as when he'd seen it from the SUV. Everything left of the warehouse was charred black. The wood and paneling that used to make up the walls were now strewn all across the large lot, black and smelling of smoke.

"Booth, why are we here?" Brennan asked gently, her anger at him forgotten when she saw the mixture of horror and confusion on his face.

"There was a warehouse here."

Brennen looked around, nodding slightly. "Yes, sure, at some point. Looks like it burned down though." She didn't notice the look he gave her as he pulled out his cell phone and a wrinkled card out of his wallet.

He dialed the number on the card, smudging the word 'Bogie' with his thumb.

Brennan watched quietly as Booth's face went from concentrated, to irritated and then slightly amused.

A mechanical voice sounded in his ear."The number you have reached, has been disconnected." It repeated over and over.

"Figures." Booth shut his cell phone and kicked a piece of wood at his feet. "Apparently I'm delusional."

Brennan had had enough. She moved so she was standing right in front of him, her hands on her hips.

"Booth. Tell me what's going on. Right. Now."

Booth looked up at her blue eyes and didn't know whether to be relieved or angry at the situation.

He took one last look around and his eyes landed on a group of children playing jump rope outside the barbed wire fence across the street.

One of the little girls was blonde with a pink raincoat and his stomach lurched.

Without thinking he reached for her hand and squeezed it, never taking his eyes off the group of children.

"You know what Bones. I think I'll do that."

**_Sorry, that was a short one...but major BB in the next which should be up tomorrow._**


	22. Confessions in the dark

**_Well I updated my fic on the other site so I decided to update this one too. Are ya ready for some BB?_**

Brennan noticed the haunted look in Booth's eyes and tugged his hand.

"Let's go somewhere else Booth."

He didn't respond at first, but after a few moments finally tore his eyes off the little girl, who reminded him so much of someone he'd rather forget, and looked at Bones. He nodded.

Brennan led him back to the car, stopped by the door and stepped toward him to wrap him in a tight hug.

Booth smiled, his melancholy lightening bit.

"What's that for?"

Brennan clung to him for a moment longer.

"You're in pain. I just...I don't know, it felt right."

She pulled away and looked at him, hoping it was the appropriate thing to do. Booth smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

"To me too."

They got in the car and spent the whole drive back to the apartment submerged in a heavy silence.

Brennan pulled up in front of Booth's apartment and stopped in his usual parking spot. Darkness surrounded them, night had fallen an hour ago. She moved to exit the car when Booth reached out and touched her knee, stopping her.

She turned to look at him, his silhouetted profile looked black against the dark blue glow outside.

"It's all gone Bones." He began slowly and heard her clothing rustling as Brennan turned to look at him. He continued to stare straight ahead at the dashboard.

"What's gone Booth?" She prodded quietly.

"Everything. That warehouse existed three weeks ago, I was there. I had files in my apartment that had all my paperwork from the missions. I had a pen from the motel in Oregon and that phone number was connected! Those bones that are missing from the lab are real, I'm not crazy Bones." The words tumbled out of his mouth as if saying them faster would make her believe.

"I don't think you're crazy Booth, but I don't understand what you're talking about."

She watched him run a hand over his face as he sighed deeply.

_He must be so tired._

Booth leaned his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes.

_Okay, obviously senseless ramblings will not get me anywhere. Start from the beginning Seeley._

"You remember two months ago when I asked you to watch Parker for me?" He didn't really wait for a response, knowing she remembered, "I told you I had to leave for an undercover case. That's not…exactly, true. The day your father's case ended, I got a phone call telling me to go to that warehouse, which was still very much not-barbequed by the way. It sounded military, so I went. I met two men, a General and a Colonel, I never got their names. They said they needed my…they needed me…it was a matter of national security Bones, I couldn't turn them down."

Booth's words were laced with desperation, pleading for understanding. Brennan reached for him.

"Okay Booth. Alright. What…why did they need you?" She resisted the urge to tell him to calm down, knowing it would only make him more hysterical.

"They needed…a sniper. They needed me."

Brennan caught her breath.

_That explains a lot, especially his mood of late, his past as a sniper has come back to haunt him._

"They gave me a picture and a plane ticket and told me to go take care of it. Of him." He shook his head, "What was I supposed to do? Turn them down? I had to go. I had to."

She noticed the way he kept repeating himself, as if trying to make himself believe his own words.

"Then, later, when I was at the golf place with you and Parker, they called me again. Another picture and plane ticket and I was off to LA."

Brennan nodded, remembering that afternoon, the way his mood had so suddenly changed. Now it made sense. And she noted, with a bit of pleasure and a dash of disdain, that her 'gut instincts' had been almost spot on about the reason for his moodiness.

"Bones…I don't know what to do." He whispered, "I should be relieved. I lost my memory and got it back. Now, the one thing I'd rather forget…is the one thing that's disappearing without a trace. Only…I'm not relieved. I'm not done yet. I don't know who sent me to do this, I didn't think they were done. Now…I mean…if I was doing the right thing and those men really did deserve to die…why are they trying to cover it up? What do they want to hide?" Booth's throat felt like it was closing up.

He wanted so badly to be relieved. It was over. He could get back to his life, forget anything happened. But as badly as he wanted that, he wanted all his loose ends tied up more. He _did_ want this to be over. Truly over.

"I don't know." She shook her head, her eyes glistening under the street light, "I'm just sorry they dragged you back into it. I'm sorry you had to go through this all alone." She rubbed his arm slowly.

"Is this why you were having nightmares? Why you weren't getting enough sleep?"

He nodded.

"I haven't had a flashback in years…and then, I started this and…" He shook his head slightly, "I can't make them stop."

Brennan sighed, his pain felt like it was ripping through her too. She wished she could take it all away.

"I wish you would have told me sooner Booth. You shouldn't have had to go endure this by yourself."

Booth shook his head. "I couldn't tell you, it's classified."

"But you're telling me now."

"Yea, well, with all the evidence gone, it's more just the ramblings of a traumatized soldier Bones." He said it with a hint of bitter teasing Brennan took note of and immediately disliked.

"You're not crazy Booth." She said sternly.

Brennan was afraid if he kept saying things like that he would start to believe them. She recalled the case they'd worked on a year ago involving the army, she'd visited one of the veteran's homes with him to speak with a witness.

She shuddered at the thought of Booth being in one of those places.

Booth laid his head back again against the rest.

"I should tell this story to Hodgins. Boy would he get a kick out of it. A real life government conspiracy." This time his teasing tone was more genuine and she relaxed a bit, until an idea popped into her head.

"That's it! We'll talk to Hodgins. If anyone can find out who this General is, it's him."

"I was just joking Bones. I don't…"

"Booth, you want answers. Hodgins can help you get those answers." She interrupted, her urgency evident by the way she bounced slightly in the seat.

If Booth could have seen Brennan in the darkness he would have known she was giving him her 'don't argue' glare.

He must have heard it in her voice though and decided resistance was futile. He closed his eyes for a moment, which reminded Brennan how tired he was.

"Why don't we go inside huh? You'll feel better after a good night's sleep, okay?"

Booth complied and five minutes later he collapsed onto his bed, asleep before even hitting the pillow.

Brennan pulled off his shoes and coat, taking great pains not to aggravate his healing injuries, then tried to snuggle him under the covers.

She hadn't noticed Laura and Michael being inside when she and Booth entered the apartment so she set out to find them.

"Laura? Michael? Are you here?"

She went to the kitchen and found a note on the refrigerator.

**Tempe and Seeley,**

**We didn't stay long, just stocked the refrigerator and cabinets with some food for you two. Seeley, please stay in bed and try to follow the doctors' orders. Tempe, thank you for staying with our son, take care of him alright? He's stubborn, so watch him close.**

**With love,**

**Michael and Laura**

Brennan checked around the kitchen. The refrigerator and cabinets were full of food, everything from easy TV dinners to raw meat and vegetables for real meals. She smiled.

_Booth is lucky to have such loving parents…I guess I am too now._ She added, noticing that the note was addressed to both of them and signed 'with love'.

Brennan went through her bedtime ritual quickly, feeling quite at home in Booth's apartment and settled in next to him in record time. She didn't think she remembered her eyelids ever feeling so heavy.

---------------------------------------

Booth shot straight up in bed, cold sweat pouring down his back and he struggled to breathe.

_It was just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream._

He repeated the mantra over and over to himself silently but his eyes couldn't help but search the room for another presence.

The dream was obvious, one of those times when he knew he was dreaming, but couldn't pull himself out of it. His movements were sluggish and everything was out of focus, but the idea was crystal clear.

He'd been perched atop the roof again in LA, staring down the barrel of his rifle, waiting for the target to open the door to his apartment. The door had indeed swung open, but the target was not in sight, instead a little girl skipped out the door, blonde pigtails bouncing in time with each step. But, this time, instead of being dressed in a pink sundress, she wore white and she was soaked in blood. Then he'd felt a tap on his shoulder. When he turned around, a skeleton with a hole in it's skull stood staring at him. White and clean, just like the bones on Brennan's tables always were. It pointed a bone finger at him accusatorily.

"You killed me. Why did you do that?" It hissed. "She'll never forgive you. Why did you kill me?"

It leaned in closer to him…and that's when Booth sat up in bed, the skeleton's whisper still echoing in his ears.

"Booth?" Brennan sat up sleepily, noticing Booth's movement.

"Booth are you alright?" She saw his head in his hands and goosebumps running over his moist skin and the labored quality to his breathing.

Reaching up with one hand, she sat beside him and rubbed his back in slow circles.

Booth jumped at her touch but finally relaxed enough to breathe normally.

He turned toward her.

"I don't know why I did it Bones." He said in a hoarse whisper.

Brennan blinked at him, allowing him to continue uninterrupted.

"In the Gulf we didn't get a lot of details, but we knew what we were doing and why. We were saving lives. But…this time…" He shook his head, holding his breath to keep the sobs at bay, "The first was on a nature hike, the second on his way to work. I killed them and I have no idea why." He felt the tears rushing to his eyes and blinked. "I…I killed a little girls' father and I have no idea if he even deserved it."

He inhaled quickly and blinked hard, but instead of pushing the gathering moisture back, the action squeezed a few droplets out and they rolled down his cheeks.

Finally Brennan couldn't take it anymore and she grabbed him, pulling his body against her and she laid her cheek on top of his head.

"We'll figure this out Booth. We'll talk to Hodgins tomorrow and we'll figure this out. Everything's going to be fine." She heard her own voice tight with tears and found it slightly odd since she didn't feel any moisture in her eyes or on her cheeks.

They lay back down and Brennan kept her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders with his wrapped around her waist. Half an hour later, after she was sure he was asleep again, she finally allowed herself to nod off, the one she loved held securely in her arms.

**_Phew...man...you think it's all over and you find it's only the beginning. LoL. Well, you know the drill. Push the button, make the author happy. _**


	23. Hodgins lucky day

**_Sorry it took me forever to update guys. And thanks to all the reviews, glad I havent lost too many of you guys along this twisted little roller coaster ride. lol. _**

Booth's hand was interlaced with Brennan's when they walked into the Jeffersonian the next day.

Brennan tried not to be too obvious about it, but she was watching him like a hawk out of the corner of her eye. He really should have been on bed rest, but it wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't actually **rest**. And he couldn't rest until he had answers.

She knew the feeling.

So she settled for giving him all his prescribed pain killers and antibiotics and refused to let him out of her sight.

_See how_ he _likes it._

Booth, however, was unaware of her watchfulness, his eyes merely scanning the lab for the curly haired conspiracy theorist.

"Sweetie!"

Brennen turned at the voice as Angela came bounding up to them, grasping her in a hug. Brennan reluctantly let go of Booth's hand and hugged her back.

"Ange…I do need to breathe."

"Oh, right." She let go and smoothed her lab coat distractedly and turned to Booth.

"And you are looking much better. I think there's something about the lighting they use in hospitals, it makes everyone look way worse than they actually are." She ruffled his hair playfully, but the small smile she was rewarded with put her on edge instead of encouraging her good mood.

"You guys? Is everything alright? Bren are you working today?"

Angela looked from Booth to Brennan, taking note of the fact that Brennn's hand had immediately gravitated back into Booths, but choosing not to comment on it.

"Yeah, everything's going to be fine Ange," Brennan responded. She glanced at Booth, who had resumed scanning the lab, "and no, I'm not working today, but we need to talk to Hodgins."

"Um…yeah, he's looking at some bugs. He's in his office." Angela pointed, but Booth was already leading the way.

--------------------------------------

Hodgins stood with his back to the door, bobbing his head and shuffling his feet to music only he could hear.

Without thinking Brennan released Booth and stood behind Hodgins, plucking his headphones from his ears.

"I don't like you to listen to music while you're working."

Hodgins jumped and turned around, a large beetle squirmed between the clamps he held in his left hand.

"Whoa! Dr. Brennan," He put his right hand to his heart, "you scared me."

"I wouldn't have if you were aware of your surroundings. These..." she held up his headphones for him to take, "are not conducive to a productive work environment."

Hodgins' gaze fell to the floor and Booth stepped foreword, placing a calming hand on her shoulder.

"You can beat him later Bones."

Brennan frowned. "Why would I…"

"Hodgins, I need you're help." He cut her off and addressed the man who was now discreetly placing his ipod inside his bag and returning to his bugs.

"Sure man, what is it?" He tried not to sound to excited that the infamously independent Agent Booth was asking for help. **His** help.

Booth glanced at Brennan, who nodded and moved to close the door before he continued.

"It's your lucky day Hodgins. We've got a conspiracy."

Hodgins' eyes lit up and he would have danced a jig, if Booth didn't look like saying those words caused him physical pain.

Instead he simply nodded silently and motioned for them to move to his couch. Discarding his latex gloves, he sat across from them in a chair.

"Tell me everything."

**_I know, it was a short filler chap, more tomorrow...which is actually today...whatev_**


	24. Who you are today

**_Annnnndd heeerrree weeeee gooo!_**

The silence was thick in the office as Booth finished the telling of his story.

Hodgins leaned back in his chair and looked at the ground, running a hand through his curly hair thoughtfully.

"You're right. It is a conspiracy." Strangly enough, saying those words didn't bring him the pleasure it usually did. Maybe because he knew the pain Booth and Brennan were in because of it.

He sighed and met the gazes of his anxious looking friends, "Look, give me a couple of hours. I'll make some phone calls, see what I can find out."'

Booth nodded and stood, bringing Brennan along with him as both were still attached by their clasped hands.

Hodgins walked them to the door and gave Booth a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before he followed Brennan out.

"Don't worry man, we'll get to the bottom of this."

Again Booth only nodded, having grown weary at speaking, especially about what he'd been up to for the past two months.

As soon as they were out Hodgins shut his door and got down to business.

Neither Booth nor Brennan said anything as they slowly made their way out of the deserted lab. Even Angela had gone out for lunch, which filled Brennan with a guilty joy.

She loved her friend dearly, but right now Booth needed her and she couldn't be dragged off to be pumped for details on her love life.

Brennan noticed Booth was automatically leading them toward the SUV, but stopped him and pulled him in the opposite direction.

"Lets go to the gardens for a while."

Booth nodded, and Brennan was painfully aware of his sudden silence.

"Seeley. Stop." She calmly placed a hand on his chest and pushed him onto a bench near the fountain.

"Hey! I'm injured you know. I'll sue." He made a lame attempt a humor, hoping it would distract her from what was inevitably her next question.

"Booth, are you alright?" She sat down beside him and put her hand on his knee.

They call it 'inevitable' for a reason.

"I'm fine Bones."

"Because you know you can tell me anything, right?"

Booth looked at her, the uncharacteristic softness in her eyes finally convinced him to ask a question he was sure she wouldn't understand the first time through.

"Temperance…will you ever forgive me?" His nightmare from the night before flashed before his eyes before he gently shook it away.

She looked startled and squinted at him under the midday sun.

"What do you mean? You haven't done anything to me."

"No, not to you, exactly. But, I killed those men, Bones. I murdered them in cold blood." Booth plucked at a piece of grass and crushed it between his fingers.

"No. Not cold blood. Murdering someone in cold blood implies taking a life willingly with a sociopathic lack of remorse or second thought to the consequences. You Booth, are not a sociopath. You were ordered to kill those two men."

"Well, I wasn't really ordered."

"Maybe not in so many words, but they did present you with a convincing argument that appealed to your nature and you could not have resisted. And besides that you cannot say you don't feel remorse because your asking my forgiveness shows you do."

Booth still held his head in his hands, so Brennan moved closer and placed her arms around his.

"Booth, I know there are a lot of things that happened in your life that I am sure you'd rather forget…but I don't want you to." She spoke softly, as if sharing a secret.

"Everything you've done in the past, good or bad, has helped mold you into the person you are today."

She leaned around his slumped shoulders captured his lips easily.

"And I love that person."

Booth cupped her head and deepened the kiss, her words seemed to momentarily lift the weight he felt in his chest and he got caught up in her. The smell of her hair, the taste of her lips…he wished he could stay like that forever.

He especially noted that the only thing that seemed to make his troubles slip his mind was a kiss from his Bones.

The moment was broken however, when Booth accidentally started to yawn, making the kiss instantly awkward.

"Sorry." He apologized, his cheeks turning bright red.

Brennan pulled way laughing.

"Are my kisses that bad Booth?"

"No! No, it's just…"

She put her finger on his lips and stood up beckoning him to join her.

"It's fine Booth. Look, you're obviously tired, you want me to take you home so you can get some rest?"

The glare she received from Booth made the answer obvious and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine. How about we go back inside? I have some paperwork I can do and you can sleep on the couch. That way we'll both be here when Hodgins finds something."

She needn't have continued to explain, for they were already walking back towards the Jeffersonian, still hand in hand, their fingers fitting together like two puzzles that finally found their missing pieces.

At Brennan's office, Booth kissed her once on the cheek before bee-lining for her sofa and making himself comfortable. At first Booth just watched her, finding her usual focus and determination relaxing.

She shuffled papers around on her desk, clicked her mouse and tapped the keys of her keyboard. Then more shuffling and tapping, a squeak of the chair as it rolled across the floor, more shuffling…

Finally the gentle rhythm of Temperance Brennan hard-at-work brought sleep to him.

"Wow, I didn't think you would still be here." Hodgins walked into Brennen's office and after a few seconds she looked up from her computer screen and blinked.

"What are you talking about?" She glanced back at the time code on her computer. "Oh."

It was after six, she'd finished her paperwork ages ago and had gotten so wrapped up in her novel that she didn't even think to check the time.

"Well, Booth didn't want to leave in case you got something." She stood from her chair and stretched, her back cracking slightly in protest.

Hodgins nodded, "Where is Booth anyway?"

Brennan pointed at her couch, where Booth lay stretched out and snoring softly. She'd covered him with a blanket a while back and he seemed to be sleeping quite comfortably. Of course, she wasn't surprised, for the kind of money she'd paid for that couch it better be comfy.

"Oh." Hodgins walked further into her office and shut the door, even though the lab was all but empty.

"You should probably wake him."

"You have something?"

Hodgins nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets as Brennan started to rouse Booth, though she immediately regretted doing it when the calm look on his face was disturbed.

"Hey handsome, time to wake up."

Booth muttered under his breath and started to pull the blanket up over his head, Brennan put a hand out to stop him.

"Hodgins has something."

Booth's eyes popped open and he sat up quickly.

"Let's hear it."

**_I scream you scream we all scream for FLUFF! haha. Well...go ahead and review, you know you're all awesome at it. _**


	25. The agent, the doctor and the General

_**I'm so glad everyone is enjoying this fic, it's one of my favorites too. lol. Well, only a few more chaps to go...enjoy!  
**_  
Hodgins wasted no time. He walked over to Brennan and Booth and held out a piece of paper.

"You recognize him?" He asked, waited while Booth studied the photo, Brennan peering over his shoulder from behind the couch.

"Where did you get this?" Booth stared wide eyed at the picture in his hands.

"I have my sources. Do you recognize him?" He repeated.

"Yeah. That's the General." He nodded. The man in the photo was in jeans and a ball cap, but there was no mistaking it. The man was the general Booth had recently been learning to hate.

"His name is Stephen Marshall, a General in the United States Army."

Hodgins began to pace Brennan's office, hoping his excitement wouldn't come off as insensitivity toward Booth, who really didn't look like he was in such a great mood.

"One of my contacts got in touch with one of his friends in the Army after I told him what you told me. We pulled a few strings and I was able to get a name and address on this guy and they were faxed over with that picture." Hodgins indicated the second paper stapled to the picture of the General.

Brennan noticed with amusement the way Hodgins was almost bouncing with energy.

_What does Ange call him? A man of odd enthusiasms. Yeah, that's definitely Hodgins._

"And that's not all." The curly-haired entomologist continued, "He's known for working closely with a tight group of five other high ranking officials…who were all missing for about three months a year and a half ago."

"Missing?" Brennan crossed her arms. "What do you mean missing?"

"I mean, Dr. Brennan, no one knows where they were. They just up and disappeared one day and three months later…they were back. Being the US government we're talking about here, no questions were asked and they resumed their normal duties like nothing happened." He added, a hint of disgust on his tone.

Booth listened carefully as he studied the papers Hodgins had given him and when he was finished, stood quickly heading for the door.

"Thanks Hodgins. I owe you one buddy." He clapped Hodgins shoulder as he walked past him.

"Booth, where are you going?" Brennn started collecting her coat as she moved to follow him out of her office.

"To talk to the General." He responded, crossing the lab in long strides.

"Not without a driver you're not." She caught up and breezed past him out the door, keys held firmly within her fingers. Booth gave her back a glare that could melt ice, bu didn't say anything in protest

"Hey! Hey man, Booth, wait a sec." Hodgins called, stopping Booth from leaving after Brennan.

"Look, uh…" He slid his eyes from side to side like he was looking for eavesdroppers, "be careful okay?"

Booth frowned, but nodded, a little unnerved by Hodgins' paranoia, though it wasn't exactly unusual coming from him.

Booth turned to leave when he heard Hodgins calling to him loudly again.

"Hey, don't keep all the juicy details to yourself when you get back man!"

_Did I just say 'juicy details'? I've been spending_ way _too much time with Angela._

"Any information I do find out will probably be classified Hodgins."

"That's the best kind!"

----------------------------------------

Brennan pulled up in front of a large colonial style home on the outskirts of DC half an hour later.

"Look, you just stay here okay?" Booth said, unbuckling himself and looking at her. Hodgins' warning to 'be careful' still rung in his ears.

Brennan smiled sweetly and leaned over to place a chaste kiss on his lips.

"Of course I will."

Then she proceeded to unbuckle herself and step out of the car.

Booth rolled his eyes.

"Why do I even bother?" He joined her walking up the path to the door, flanked on both sides by perfectly trimed green grass and pansies.

"I'm really not sure."

Booth knocked and stared intently at the door, straining to hear anything from inside. On his left Brennan did her usual poking around and looked in the windows.

"See anything?" He whispered once she was again at his side.

She shook her head and Booth reached up to knock again, despite being met with silence the first time.

Just then his cell phone chirped in his pocket.

"Booth."

"I always knew this might happen." A smiling voice responded to his curt greeting.

"Who is this?" Booth stepped away from the door and Brennan followed, her brow furrowed in curiosity.

"You know exactly who this is Major Booth."

Booth stiffened and nodded slightly when Brennen mouthed, 'the General' to him and tilted her head.

"Where are you?"

He heard a sigh from the General and then, "Meet me at the diner on the corner of 54th and Lexington in fifteen minutes." Then a click signaled the end of the call.

"What was that about?" Brennan asked as soon as Booth shut his phone.

Booth stared at her for a moment, trying to decide whether or not to lie to her and make her go home. Things had been disappearing a lot lately and Bones was the last thing he wanted to lose track of.

"Booth?" Brennan took a step closer to him, noting the contemplative look in his eyes, and not realizing she'd just made him fall in love with her all over again.

He couldn't help himself. He saw those pale blue ocean eyes staring up at him and knew he could never lie to her. Those eyes so full of trust and love…he simply couldn't betray them. Betray her.

He shook his head, as if physically confirming his decision and pressed a quick kiss on her forehead.

"Lets go to lunch Bones." Then he automatically climbed into the passenger side of the SUV, much to the delight of Brennan who was getting very used to driving.

-----------------------------------

"I don't think I like this place Booth." Brennan rounded the car and walked next to him as they approached the small building, her face contorting into a scowl at the run down condition of the diner.

A neon 'open' sign blinked sporadically in the window and the paint on the outer walls was peeling and black with dirt. The roof was stained from rust and water damage and every few steps she had to hop slightly to avoid twisting her ankle in one of the many potholes that sprinkled the parking lot.

Booth reached for her hand, mistaking her disgust for apprehension and Brennan rolled her eyes.

"I'm not scared Booth, I just think General Marshal could have picked a meeting place that was a little less…cliché."

Booth smiled and squeezed her hand, finding her annoyance quite endearing and amusing.

Once inside Booth scanned the the diner and spotted the General quickly amongst the other five people there, three others if you didn't count the waitress and cook.

Marshal looked up and nodded at Booth as he slid into the seat across from him, then he frowned when he saw Brennan.

"You should have come alone Major." He mumbled to a cup of cold coffee.

Booth shook his head.

"Bones is my partner." He said simply.

"Bones?" The general looked up, a smile being hidden by his look of confusion.

"No. He calls me Bones." She sat next to Booth and jerked an accusing finger at him, "But my name is Dr. Temperance Brennan."

The General's eyes got imperceptibly larger.

"The forensic anthropologist?"

She nodded, unable to hide the pleasure admitting that brought her.

"Oh," Marshall visibly relaxed. "You can be here then, your security clearance almost goes higher than mine."

Booth glanced at Bones, squeezing her knee under the table.

_That's my girl._

He turned his full attention back to the General.

"So you gonna tell me why everything related to my missions is disappearing?"

Marshal stared at his coffee for a moment and stirred the clotting creamer.

"You shouldn't be here …" He started.

"But you told me to meet you..." Booth protested.

"I did not give you permission to speak Major!" Marshal hissed, and Booth immediately shut his mouth.

Brennan watched inquisitively as Booth submitted to Marshal's wish for him to be quiet. It was strange for her to even watch him take orders from Cullen, Booth's alpha attributes just didn't click with being subordinate to other males.

"As I was saying. You shouldn't be here. It's against protocol and if anyone finds out…it could get ugly. But I knew when I chose you for this job that it was a possibility you would find me. You are, after all, one of the best investigators in DC."

Booth felt his chest swell with a familiar pride. Then, thinking of Hodgins, _I'd probably be_ _in pretty bad shape without my Squints though._

"But I needed the best for an operation like this and we couldn't take any chances on someone who might miss."

"And what kind of operation is this?" Booth ventured carefully.

Marshal met his eyes for the first time.

"A level one Servo Pacis."

Booth's eyes widened and he sat back in his chair with a sharp intake of breath.

Brennan narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, her mind already churning.

**_Allrriiighty then! lol. Push the button and feel free to talk my ear off! _**


	26. In the end, love is all we have

**_Well, this is the last chapter. It's been a fun ride and thank you to everyone who reviewed and even those of you who didn't review but were still reading. I luv you all and I luv Booth...even if I don't own him..._**

Brennan glanced at Booth again, his expression serious and contemplative, while General Marshal continued to stir his coffee absently.

When neither said anything for several moments, she finally spoke up.

"Servo Pacis means 'keep peace' in Latin." She stated, watching either man for a reaction.

The General glanced at her from beneath his ball cap.

"You speak Latin. I'm impressed."

Booth sat foreword, addressing the General.

"Servo Pacis Missions. I didn't think those really existed."

The General just nodded. "They're very rare, but yes, from time to time…they are executed."

Brennan furrowed her brow.

"What exactly are we talking about?"

Marshal made no move to answer so she turned to Booth, who tore his eyes off the General and glanced at her.

"According to rumors, there are three levels of Servo Pacis. Level three is surveillance and intelligence recovery, basically learning all you can through observation. Level two is first contact and negotiations and level one means 'keep the peace'...by any means necessary."

"Which is where you came in Major."

"How do you mean?" Booth returned his attention to Marshal.

The General sighed heavily and sat back, looking at the two people carefully.

"Everything I'm about to tell you is classified and confidential. Understood?"

They nodded in unison and waited patiently for him to begin.

"A year and a half ago I and five other high ranking officials, and I can't tell you their names so don't ask, we went on a highly sensitive and classified mission in China."

Booth figured one of the members of that mission was probably the Colonel from the warehouse.

"What we discussed…included sensitive, possibly damaging information about several powerful members of the United Nations. A…threat had erupted, rumors circulated, and we were sent to find out the actual circumstances of said threat and rumors. We did just that."

Booth waited, but the General was not being very forthcoming and he had all but lost his patience.

"So why did you need me?" His voice was low, still processing all the information and wishing this whole thing was over.

The General cleared his throat before continuing.

"Well, the information we obtained on our mission could be very…valuable to some countries and very damaging to others. We were trusted with that knowledge and we all knew the consequences of…leaking it."

"Someone leaked." Brennan said bluntly. Booth didn't even flinch and Marshal just nodded.

"Three someone's actually. Well, they were planning on it. We recently received intelligence that three of the members of our unit were planning to sell their information to the highest bidder. Doing that would have almost certainly led to large scale war in a matter of hours, but they would also have been very rich. An order was issued from the highest level of our government. Keep the peace, by any means necessary."

Booth felt his stomach flip-flop.

_I was the means. My skills as a sniper._

"We couldn't risk a messy trial or any sort of public attention. The traitors needed to be silenced. We needed it done quickly and quietly. We needed you, Major Booth."

Marshal made his gaze meet that of the younger man and felt compassion for the struggle he saw playing in his eyes.

"The usual procedure for a Servo Pacis is to take out the targets, then erase all evidence of the missions. When you got in the accident it just made our jobs that much easier. You were never supposed to find me, but you did and out of courtesy to you, I decided to explain everything."

"Courtesy to me?" Booth didn't seem convinced.

"Yes. I know you Major, after you got a chance to think about it, not knowing would be worse than the actual circumstances of your missions. So I let you in, much to the chagrin of the other members of my unit, I might add."

Booth just nodded while Brennan studied him, her eyes sliding over to the General every few seconds.

"So what does this mean?" She said finally, for once in her life feeling like the only person in the room who didn't know what was going on.

_I wonder if this is how Booth feels when he's with me and the others at the lab._

Marshal cleared his throat.

"It means that this is over. The last target was…eliminated two days ago. Your assistance to the United States Government is duly noted…but this conversation," he gestured between them, "never happened. Go back to your life Agent Booth."

Booth met gazes with the Marshal as Brennan rose from the table, for the first time in her life understanding her que to leave and taking it.

_Agent Booth huh? I guess it really is over._

He slid out of the booth and stood, looking one last time at the General before leaving.

"Thank you, sir. For, um…you know. I mean not knowing was…frankly sir, it was killing me. So, thank you."

A formal nod from the General and Booth was out the door and with Brennan in the SUV.

The ride back to the apartment was spent in a heavy silence as Brennan struggled with herself to decide what she could do. She couldn't make up her mind if Booth was happy about the information he'd just received, or if he was more stressed than before. She didn't know whether to leave him to his thoughts or try and help him.

_This is why I stopped doing relationships…it's very complicated._

She gripped the steering wheel tighter as dread gripped her chest and she made herself take deep breaths.

_This is different. Booth is different._

"We need gas." She broke the silence after a light lit up on the dash and pulled into the nearest gas station. Still thinking, she hooked up the pump and leaned against the car, chewing her bottom lip. Finally, an idea popped into her head and she decided to act on it before she chickened out.

"Hey, I have to use the bathroom, can you finish up here?"

Booth nodded and Brennan quickly disappeared inside the small building and found the restroom.

Fishing her cell out of her pocket, she recited the number to herself to be sure she hadn't forgotten it.

"Hello?"

"Hi Rebecca. It's Temperance."

"Oh, Hi. What's up?"

Brennan sighed. "Listen, I was wondering if you could do me a favor. Well it's for Booth, but it's also for me."

"A favor like what?" She sounded hesitant.

"I was wondering if…well, if it would be okay if Parker stayed at Booth's tonight."

"What? Why?"

"Well, it's just that…he just got done with this mis…case and he's taking it pretty hard and he once told me that after something like…what he's been through these past few months, that being with someone innocent helps. I think seeing Parker would help him a lot and I mean, I know it's short notice but he did miss all those weekends with Parker while he was in the hospital and…"

Rebecca noted the almost pleading tone in Dr. Brennan's voice and cleared her throat to stop the woman's rambling.

"You know what? It's fine. Drew wanted to go out this evening anyway…you'll save me the cost of a babysitter."

Brennan sighed in relief and felt herself smile. "Thank you Rebecca."

"No problem, when should I bring him over?"

"As soon as possible."

"Okay, see you in an hour."

Rejoining Booth in the SUV, Brennan pulled out and made the rest of the way to his apartment in less than ten minutes.

"What are you grinning at?" He asked teasingly, noticing the small smile that played on her lips.

"Nothing."

Booth was skeptical, but couldn't pursue the issue as she hopped out of the car and they went to his door.

"Go watch TV and rest. I'll make dinner." She told him when they were inside

"You can't cook." He leaned over to kiss her and she let him, but pulled away before he got too enthusiastic. She knew right where it would lead.

_Yeah, that would definitely scar Parker for life._

"I don't have to cook, your parents left frozen dinners. Now go." She pushed him toward the couch and Booth obeyed.

Flipping through the channels,he didn't really notice what was on. He tried to distract himself from thoughts of the General and thoughts of his mission with thoughts of his Bones. Which seemed to work pretty well actually.

He was amazed at how maternal and caring she'd been ever since he got out of the hospital. She'd known exactly what to do and what to say. He was sure he'd never be able to show her how much he appreciated that.

Brennan joined him on the couch, setting two beers and two Hungry Man dinners on the coffee table. in front of them.

She smiled when his face brightened like a kid in a candy store and he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

"Thanks babe, looks delicious." He began inhaling the food.

"Yeah, I slaved all day over a hot stove to make it just the way you like it." She laughed, watching him devour the food almost without pause. "You really were hungry weren't you?"

Booth nodded. "Haven't eaten since my cup of coffee this morning…come to think of it neither have you."

He stared pointedly at her tray and she rolled her eyes, catching his meaning.

"It's not that unusual for me, Booth. I can go all day on a cup of coffee and a fruit snack."

Booth groaned. "Don't tell me things like that Temperance. I'll be worrying about you getting enough to eat all day now."

Brennan rolled her eyes again as she nibbled on her chicken, but Booth didn't notice.

After they'd finished Booth got up to take the garbage to the kitchen and Brennan checked the clock.

_Where are they?_

As if they'd heard her plea there was a sudden knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Brennan jumped off the couch and whipped the door open, grinning at Parker and Rebecca in the hallway.

"Bones! Check to see who's there before you…" Booth appeared from the other side of the door, wiping wet hands on his jeans, but stopped when he saw Parker's shining brown eyes and head of curls grinning at him.

"Parker?"

"Daddy!" In his usual greeting, Parker took off through the apartment and launched himself into the air. Booth snatched Parker out of the air and hugged him tight, ignoring for the time being, the pain in his ribs.

_I'm definitly going to need that Vicodin in a minute though._

"Hey buddy."After a few moments he released his son and placed him on the floor. "What's going on?"

Brennan blushed slightly and looked at Rebecca, not wanting Booth to know what she'd done.

Sensing her discomfort, Rebecca quickly jumped in.

"Um, Drew and I have a date and I was wondering if you could take Parker tonight. I know it's short notice and all, but…" She trailed off, grasping at straws and hoping Seeley wouldn't see right through her.

Booth looked between the two women, his gut was telling him something else was up, but he decided to ignore it if it meant more time with Parker.

"Sure, no problem."

"Thanks Seeley." Rebecca threw one last look at Dr. Brennan before bidding her son farewell and leaving.

Booth watched as Brennan shut the door, her ears the color of a fire engine.

"Parker, why don't you go put your stuff in your room?"

Parker nodded and took off down the hall, but Booth never let his eyes leave Brennan's back and slowly made his way over to her. She was still facing the door, gripping the doorknob tightly and he could tell by her tense muscles that she was thinking.

_Was this the right thing? Was I too presumptuous? Maybe he's too tired for Parker tonight. I should have asked him first. I've completely screwed this up._

Her racing thoughts were brought to a screeching halt when two strong arms wrapped themselves around her waist and pulled her back into a warm chest. Laying her head back on his shoulder, she closed her eyes.

"Thank you, Bones." Booth kissed her hair, "You can never go wrong with Parker."

He felt her relax against him and smiled.

_I'm getting pretty good at reading her thoughts._

She turned around to face him, feeing the need to fidget, she fingered his medallion carefully as she spoke in an almost whisper.

"Do you know why you did it now?"

Booth thought for a moment and rested his forehead against hers, clasping his hands behind her lower back to keep her close.

"I guess. Prevented war, saved lives. That is, as long as the General was telling the truth…if he was, I think everything's okay."

"Hundreds of thousands of lives Booth, and yes, I think he was."

He leaned back and locked his brown eyes with her blue ones.

"How do you know?"

Another slight blush crept into her cheeks and she shrugged.

"My gut tells me so."

Parker came back into the room and pulled a game off the shelf.

"Since when do you listen to your gut?"

"I don't know. It's never proven me wrong before though." She broke from his embrace and pulled him toward the living room, where they sat on the floor with Parker.

"Watcha got there Bud?" Booth ruffled his son's hair.

"Yahtzee!" Parker pumped his hands in the air excitedly and crawled over to Brennan to sit in her lap, positioning them so they were both facing Booth who sat opposite of them.

"You can keep score Elmo." He thrust a piece of paper at her along with a short stubby pencil.

"Okay, I can do that. Booth you know what? I know this game!"

Booth smiled as he rubbed the dice around in his hands, she looked almost as exited as Parker.

Near the end of the game Parker stopped in the middle of his turn and suddenly looked up at Booth as if a thought had just hit him in the forehead.

"I love you Daddy."

Booth tilted his head at his son's sudden revelation and smiled when the boy immediately returned his concentration to the game.

He looked over Parker's shoulder at Brennan, who was staring at him.

'I love you too.' She mouthed to him, a girlish grin gracing her elegant features.

Booth gave her a full on charm smile, unable to quite verbalize how he felt at that moment.

_She makes me speechless._ He thought happily, butterflies were having a field day in his stomach.

Booth did end up losing the game, but he didn't mind. After all, his son loved him.

And so did his Bones.

THE END

**_So...if any of you noticed, I brought the whole thing full circle, that last part was almost verbatim for something said in the first chap. But anyway, i hope you enjoyed this and review!! THANK YOU!!_**


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